Controversy Surrounding “Eavesdropping” under the guise of “National Security”
Charles R. Amara
Macomb Community College
Abstract
There is a lot of controversy surrounding “eavesdropping” and social media monitoring under the guise of “National Security”. Are our individual rights and privacy being violated? Is the government doing this for national security? The Patriot Act should not override an individual’s Constitutional Rights, except when a crime or terrorism is involved with that individual. Is the government being too intrusive as it pertains to snooping into the privacy of citizens? Katz v. United States, the warrantless wiretapping of a pay phone violates the fourth amendment. Are you willing to give up your “Rights” in the name
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One notable case involves Katz v. United States, which includes the illegal use of wiretapping in an area protected by the Fourth Amendment. The Patriot Act should not override Constitutional Rights, instead it allows law enforcement to work more effectively.
Intrusive Government
The government is abusing their “National Security” guise. They use this excuse because they know they are in the wrong. Why does the government have to be secretive and eavesdrop on normal civilians? The government with-holds a lot of information from the public. The introduced the Patriot Act to allow law enforcement to use surveillance on more crimes of terror and follow sophisticated terrorists. It should not be used to override our Constitutional Rights.
Privacy of citizens1
The Bill of Rights, particularly speaking the Fourth and First Amendment are there to protect us, give us freedom, and privacy. I do believe the government is being pushy when it comes to snooping because it then limits our First Amendment, freedom of speech. If the government is eavesdropping, we have to watch what we are talking about on the phone, in e-mails and even text messages. I’m sure there are certain keywords that triggers the government to place wiretaps and listen in on certain individuals. But wait, how are they listening in the first place to know what we are talking about? And because we are just citizens,
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Would you give up your “Rights” in the name of security? I sure wouldn’t. To me our rights are our protection, our security. “Rights” is broad, as this paper mostly pertains to the fourth amendment. When I am asked if I will give up my rights, I think of losing the power of right to bear arms, freedom of speech, and protected from unreasonable searches and seizures. What if we gave up our fourth amendment, everybody’s house, car, and personal belongings would be searched whenever the government felt like it. Don’t you think this could cause conflict among the community? Maybe even rioting if it got serious enough? If something like this did happen and we gave up our right to bear arms, who is protecting us against other members of the community? So if we were to give up our rights in the name of security, we take the chance of causing an even bigger security threat or
With good intentions, the Patriot Act allows the government to pry into Americans' lives through computer and phone records as well as credit and banking history (Source 5). This oversteps the U.S. Constitution as the First and Fourth Amendment were created to give citizens freedom and the right to deny search and seizure
The US Patriot Act was a very controversial act that was created after the events of September 11, 2011. Although many sanctions under the US Patriot Act grossly violated the fourth amendment in several ways, congress felt it was necessary to protect the nation. Sections that violated the fourth amendment are: the sneak and peek warrants included in section 213, roving/warrantless wiretapping of section 206, and finally trap and trace searches of section 214. These are just a few of the many violations I can account for. The Fourth Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights that was added to the Constitution in 1791. It protects people from unlawful searches and seizures. This means that the police can't search you or your house without a warrant or probable cause. Are we truly willing to override the Constitution in the name of national security?
NSA infringes on the 1st and 4th Amendment rights. America was the safe zone: a lot of people came to the United States so that they would have the freedom to express who they are, what they believe, and their thoughts without punishment. Edward Snowden, NSA whistle blower, wasn’t allowed that freedom when he made it know what the NSA was doing with Verizon’s phone records. Snowden did break the law but he brought awareness of this dilemma to the average citizen, villain, and hero. In the end, it caused the NSA to change some policies but it doesn’t even make a difference because still the administration continues to collect data without a cause. Correction: the NSA uses surveillance to protect United States of America from terrorist, terrorism and terrorism related crimes… The agency’s interpretation: anyone and anything under the sun.
The Patriot Act, in my opinion, is violating the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution (even though it is an exception to it) because it invades our privacy by allowing the government to place wide ranging wiretaps on us without even identifying the target or locations of target individuals who have no connection to terrorist organizations and collect business records of all Americans without any connection to terrorists. Under the act, any data can be collected by the government without a warrant. They have access to the phone calls we make, the inbound and outbound internet traffic we navigate, and even the emails we receive/send in a daily basis. Basically, under this act, none of the electronic information that we consider private is untouchable
The 4th amendment to the US Constitution serve as a security to the privacy of citizen but as American citizen would rarely have the government to use the surveillance to ensure the nation security from terrorist threat. People use the internet, phones, and cameras to record information. The government do wire taps and now even in the City of Atlanta we have camera on light poles and on the streets in downtown but it is for a good reason to help protect the people that work, live and walk the streets this also help the police where that they are short of help. I think the government has stop more attacks on the country using the surveillance since 9/11 incident. I believed if this will help protect us then the government
I believe that the government has good reasoning to want to go through our phone conversations and e-mails, but that doesn’t make it right. The fourth amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and sets out requirements for search warrants based on probable cause as determined by a neutral judge or magistrate. This means that they can’t just go against the United States Bill of Rights and dig through people’s electronic devices. Part of the first amendment states you have the freedom of speech. If you have freedom of speech and the government is watching and listening to your conversations and you accidentally say something that sounds like terrorism but you happen to be joking, they can arrest you because they are suspicious. Both
The U.S. government overreaches the limits of the fourth amendment by illegally spying, collecting data from citizens, and cannot confirm the intention is actually to foreigners although it may help to prevent terrorism. It's unfair that the NSA and U.S. government are able to invade the privacy of anyone from innocent mothers to bank robbers when actually only the bank robbers phone calls should be surveilled. Without the protection of the fourth amendment life in the United States as its known would come to an end.
Many people feel that the Patriot Act overreaches its original intent by allowing the government to spy on its own citizens, essentially violating American’s civil liberties, most notably our right to privacy granted by our Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights, as well as our right to due process granted by the Fifth Amendment in the Bill of Rights.
In addition to the invasion of privacy and spying on millions of Americans without their knowledge, The Patriot Act is also in violation of the Fourth Amendment in multiple ways.
I believe many people are unhappy with the provisions of the Patriot Act because it gives government officials the right to invade your personal space. The Patriot Act which stands for; "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001" enables the freedom of association, information, unreasonable searches, the right to a speedy and public trial, and the right to liberty. Americans do not like their privacy being invaded; although government officials think it’s a reasonable case to protect our society some things should be considerate with entering personal private settings. Phone tapping, computer/internet searches, searches of homes or business without notifying the
In the United States every person is afforded rights that must be maintained, if not, it can lead to a prosecution issue. It is difficult to determine nowadays what rights are protected within the Bill of Rights. This was even clearer with the introduction of the Patriot Act, it violated the First and Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights. According to Christopher Metzler (2006), the patriot act allows law enforcement the right to search and utilize wiretaps to obtain information that can be used in domestic criminal cases (p. 55). America has given up some of their liberties, which were protected by the constitution in hopes of gain more protection from terrorism. For example the Fourth Amendment protects against unlawful search and seizure
While there are many benefits provided by the Patriot Act, the program also incorporates drawbacks, chiefly, American citizen’s freedom is being weakened. Corresponding, the Fourth Amendment is being taken advantage of; the protection to citizen’s privacy from government invasion, and no warrant shall be issued without probable cause (Wex Legal Dictionary). With this intention, subpoenas are often obtained rather than a warrant, and the use of technology to record citizen’s information is reducing the Fourth Amendment. Not only is the Fourth Amendment being weakened, but so is our freedom of speech. Moreover, the Patriot Act can easily be abused, crippling the Fourth Amendment, leaving Americans with less freedom than what was written for them
The NSA’s wiretapping program is still in use today and in fact, the issue of its legality has hit a plateau. While the program is praised for its use to prevent attacks and ensure safety, it’s often criticized for its questionable practices and its ties to the Fourth Amendment. However, average Americans such as you and
A common lie that plagues society is that the government is monitoring its people to protect them. This is a blatant lie only used to provide citizens with a false sense of security. The Foreign Intelligence Act, better known as the ‘FISA’ Act was passed through legislation simply to be utilized as another active device to gain intelligence on those who are supposed to be free. Due to a new spur of terrorism in the world the United States believed there were changes to be made. The FISA Act was later ratified to include the Patriot Act which is a direct threat to the nation’s freedom if used for anything other than its intended purpose.
What if someone said we were being watched? Every move, every idea, every breath being monitored without our knowledge. Whether we realize it or not, the government is watching us; listening to our phone calls, looking at text messages, looking at emails, and in some cases watching us through video, and they’re allowed to. In 2001, soon after the tragic day of 9/11, President George Bush created the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act is an acronym meaning Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. The act according to Should the U.S. Government Spy, the government is allowed to surveillance us in hopes of improving the nation’s safety. This entailing that the government can conduct a search without the consent of the