civil liberties vs national security pros and cons

When Congress enacted the statute in the late 1970s, the NSA was intercepting huge volumes of telecommunications traffic into and out of the United States specifically, it was tapping cables in international waters and monitoring satellite-based radio transmissions, all without judicial supervision. While the threat of terrorism demands some changes to the ways in which we conduct investigations, past UAHC policy and basic Jewish values lead us to question the wisdom of these changes. Even if the data collected through government surveillance creates a reasonable suspicion of conduct for the targeted person, there may not be a guarantee that the individual is guilty. The Court even went so far as to deny that race was the motivating factor behind the orders, avoiding their constitutional duty as the primary protector of individual rights, writing: Korematsu was not excluded from the Military Area because of hostility to him or his race. Twenty years after the September 11th terrorist attacks, Americans are less supportive of trading civil liberties for security and have lost faith in the countrys ability to protect various rights and liberties. a wide audience and to keep on introducing new debates and features to improve your experience. The registration process includes questions on residence, comparison with lists of suspected terrorists, fingerprinting and face scans, and questions about constitutionally protected activities such as mosque attendance and political views. With the advent of the Digital Era, many governments have adopted a policy of mass online surveillanceand data mining. Recent Posts. That money comes through taxpayer support in the name of defense, which means the population effectively pays for the data that the government could potentially use against them under the right set of circumstances. July 16, 2013 8:48 pm. Citing Literature Volume 33, Issue 3 September 2003 Pages 547-567 Information 0000025659 00000 n Under FISA 702, the U.S. government can collect a massive quantity of detailed, sensitive, and intimate personal information about individuals from all over the world. 1. When there is a miss from government surveillance activities, then the reaction tends to be an ever-closer analysis of the information that was collected already. Is Edward Snowden a hero or a traitor? The other was a 36 year-old Kurdish refugee from Iraq named . Of equal concern are Attorney General directives, including the authorization of surveillance of attorney-client communications without demonstration that these conversations are being used to perpetrate criminal activity. Edward Snowden has been blamed for disclosing this mass surveillance system and endangering national security. Since September 11th, the Justice Department has begun a strategy of widespread preventive detention, resulting in the secret imprisonment of more than 1,200 individuals - mostly non-citizens of Middle Eastern descent. They would fight terrorism, not with new law enforcement tools, but with blanket restrictions on the minority groups to which the terrorists belong. Government is not the source of our rights, Liberty vs. Security: Liberty is more important than security, Absolute government power corrupts absolutely, The solution to unconstitutional government: Fight Back. Surveillance misses lead to even more data being collected on people. Set against all these privacy rights is the overriding principle of Pikuah Nefesh - saving a life. The report also describes the extremely aggressive tactics employed against immigrants who were technically being held only on minor immigration violations rather than evidence of criminal activity. Civil liberties generally differ from human rights, which are universal rights to which all human beings are entitled regardless of where they live. Con. By Dahlia Lithwick. The USA PATRIOT Act amends FISA to give greater authority to the Attorney General to permit domestic criminal surveillance to come under its jurisdiction, a significant expansion. If you change your mind, you can change your vote simply by clicking on another option. The essential civil liberties guaranteed in the United States are, in no particular order: Right to privacy. That means people could potentially incriminate themselves through surveillance even though they believe that there are protections in place while they prepare for their defense. Public discourse regarding the appropriateness of governmental action in the war on terrorism must continue to be a valuable and respected part of American democracy; When government seeks to dilute existing privacy protections, at a minimum, there must be a substantial, public showing of the need for such measures to combat terrorism, the measures should impact on privacy rights as narrowly as reasonably possible and all such changes should contain sunset provisions; Evolving technologies and new understandings of the methods used by terrorist organizations require enhanced anti-terrorism investigative tools, such as roving wiretaps; Maintain its longstanding commitment to the right to privacy of American citizens and residents by: Opposing statutes and administrative directives that expand domestic wiretapping under FISA, and eliminate or weaken the Fourth Amendment standards of probable cause; Opposing investigation of citizens and non-citizens, initiated solely on the basis of ethnicity, religion, or constitutionally protected speech or association, absent reasonable suspicion of potential criminal wrongdoing; Opposing programs, such as Operation TIPS, that engender a climate of suspicion and mistrust by asking civilians to investigate and report on the "suspicious" activity of other Americans; Opposing the use of data-mining technologies, such as Total Information Awareness, as a means of targeting suspicious behavior and opposing the misuse of data derived from the use of such technologies; Maintain its longstanding commitment to the Constitutional principle of due process for citizens and non-citizens alike by: Opposing directives permitting surveillance of attorney-client communications without demonstration of probable cause to believe that such communications will be used to perpetrate criminal activity; Opposing administrative rulings that designate citizens as "enemy combatants" and thus not entitled to the full range of due process rights; Opposing the use of military tribunals to try terrorism suspects without provision of due process protections; Opposing the use of "secret evidence" and closed hearings absent compelling circumstances to be established on a case by case basis, with notice to the accused, an opportunity to be heard concerning the proposed closure, and judicial review. But Republicans are divided, with 46% saying its sometimes necessary and 53% saying its never necessary. Americans have become less inclined to support trading civil liberties for security and most do not think the country is doing a good job protecting many rights and liberties. In 1971, the UAHC passed a resolution stating that by "employing wiretap techniques, the government may well have overstepped its constitutional power to stop foreign espionage." This is the seventh part in a series discussing the principles of the American founding, their embodiment in the United States Constitution, and the ways in which the Supreme Court has all too often negated these principles to the detriment of individual liberty. On this week's episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick . Please check your inbox for our emails, and to manage your subscription. The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures . A 2007 report by the UK Information Commissioner's Office, highlighted the need for the public to be made more aware of the growing use of surveillance and the potential impact on civil liberties. American Civil Liberties Union, "National Security Entry-Exit Registration System"; American Civil Liberties Union, "Secure Communities ('S-COMM')"; Aarti Kohli, Peter L. Markowitz . It is easy to access this data to look at what is going on with a spouse, a mistress, or someone who is a personal enemy. This advantage includes anyone who has a foreign intelligence interest for the government. Civil privacy legislation that includes security legislation such as FERPA, HIPAA, and FSMA should be the rule. A. Privacy, Surveillance and First Amendment Issues. Civil Liberties vs National Security In U.S., the bill of rights protects civil liberties. It highlights a difficult question every modern state has faced but one that has intensified in age of high tech communication and international terrorism: How does a country balance collective security with individual liberty? ", While many Americans would willingly grant their government extraordinary powers, believing these would never be used against law-abiding citizens like themselves, others see no conflict at all between civil liberties and national security. When we look back at the top-trending stories of the last decade, there are three in particular which stand out when looking at the issue of government surveillance: the death of Trayvon Martin, the rise and fall of Google Glass, and the release of information about the surveillance program called Prism. Mass governnment surveillance pros and cons: Is NSA internet spying and data mining justified? Should the government engage in bulk collection of personal data for national security purposes? Think of civil liberties as rights that a government is contractually obligated to protect, usually by a constitutional bill of rights. The modern equipment for government surveillance can go almost anywhere. 337 0 obj Was created after 9/11 attack. Apparently the NSA surveillance program was not only used to collect intelligence for domestic affairs but also to collect data from foreign leaders and politicians. In response to the concerns of the UAHC and others, the FISA was enacted in 1978, establishing an important barrier between foreign intelligence surveillance within the U.S. and domestic criminal investigation. Small wonder law enforcement has resorted to devices such as Stingray, a scanner that mimics a cellphone tower, vacuuming up all mobile communication within a designated area, or that intelligence agencies want access to Facebook. Surgically modifying his face and changing his name in an attempt to avoid detection, Korematsu was eventually forced into hiding, after which he was quickly identified (as Japanese) and arrested. And did the High Court declare FDRs obviously unconstitutional actions as such? Following the 1933 Reichstag fire, Adolph Hitler pushed through the Enabling Act, a law granting him dictatorial powers allegedly to fight Communism.

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