Wiretaps And The Fourth Amendment

The government is always watching to ensure safety of their country, including everything and everyone in it. Camera surveillance has become an accepted and almost expected addition to modern safety and crime prevention (“Where” para 1). Many people willingly give authorization to companies like Google and Facebook to make billions selling their personal preferences, interests, and data. Canada participates with the United States and other countries in monitoring national and even global communications (“Where” para 2). Many question the usefulness of this kind of surveillance (Hier, Let, and Walby 1).However, surveillance, used non-discriminatorily, is, arguably, the key technology to preventing terrorist plots (Eijkman 1). Government

The Fourth Amendment enumerates the requirements that must be met before a warrant can be issued (Hall, 2016.) It is the responsibility of the law enforcement officer requesting the warrant to establish these elements to the judge making the warrant determination (Hall, 2016.)

Supreme court rules federal investigators can wiretap into suspects phones legally, and use those conversations as evidence.

Government Wiretapping is when the government gets access without court consent is used completely illegally Every day, Hundreds of millions of people chat exchange text messages and send picture through social sites like Facebook and you don't know whether or not the government is watching you and see everything you send out they are just invading your privacy. While it may help catch criminals (terrorist drug dealers etc) it is being used to spy on millions of people ILLEGALLY there have even been some cases of government officials choosing to spy on people they know even if they know they're innocent. Why should the government be allowed to wiretap without court consent? They are looking at innocent people's information and some cases have

The government has the power over many things but this time they went a bit too far and took advantage of their power by spying on us. Is it a conspiracy or a fact?The US government with assistance from major telecommunication carriers including At&T , has engaged in massive,illegal dragnet surveillance of the domestic communications and communication records of millions of ordinary Americans getting information which i think at times it can be necessary.Someone can be plotting a terrorist attack , murder or robbing a bank. Some say the NSA(National Security Agency) has invented futuristic “toys” they have become creative finding new ways to get Intel on us.

Katz v. United States was held in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. Charles Katz was convicted of wagering based on evidence presented by the FBI. They planted devices on a public phone booth to record his conversations. This case violated the fourth amendment, which is our right to privacy Also the first and fifth amendments deal with our right to privacy as well. The fourth amendment states that we have the ?right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures? (Legal Information Institute, 2015).

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

On September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks the Twin Tower of the World Trade Center. In response to this attack, President George W. Bush administration increases their data capability. “A federal judge sitting on the secret surveillance, panel called the Fisa court would approve a bulk collection order for internet metadata every 90 days.” So does the NSA violate the 4th amendment? According to uscourts.gov “4th Amendment, protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. The 4th Amendment, however, is not granted against all searches and seizures, but only those that are being unreasonable under the law.” On one hand, the 4th amendment and other hand you have the Patriot Act and now called the USA Freedom Act.

The search and seizure stipulate that the Fourth Amendment is about privacy. It gives a prevision of protection of personal privacy to every citizen’s right, not to serve as a fixed protection against the misuse of the government, but to be free from unreasonable government intrusion into individuals lives. There is an understanding that one must know when looking into the Fourth Amendment and expecting protection, that must be considered. It serves as a protection for the rights of the people during police stops, arrests, searches and seizures of homes, papers and businesses. It has been placed to be a legal mechanical device to ensure that people’s rights are treated fairly under limited circumstances from those who are in a legal position. The Fourth Amendment stretches out to demonstrate the protection of search and seizure. This constitutional protection is provided to individuals in many scenarios. When police have a valid search warrant, a valid arrest warrant or the belief that probable cause in which a crime has been committed it shows that law enforcement has validation or at least a solid belief of probable cause during a search or seizure, but just so you understand the police can override your privacy, your concerns and conduct a search of you and your personal space. Law is a concrete form of rules that has been placed in a foundation that was established for policy holders to refer back to encase there is a need for an exclusionary rule (Nd 2014). During my

If the NSA were to get a warrant for every single phone call, email, text etc. that they want to go through, to follow the Fourth Amendment, it would take a very long time. Waiting for a warrant slows down the process of catching a suspect, and it can also be blamed for losing new, critical evidence. The NSA has to go to the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) in order to get a warrant which may take some time says David Sirota writer from International Business Times. (Source 1). Both the NSA and the FISA have to make sure that the warrant has a probable cause, and that it obeys the Fourth Amendment (Source 1). It also must be supported by a statement or some other visible fact or evidence, states the Fourth Amendment (Source

Fortunately, within the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution, the Fourth Amendment exists, which protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures (Gardner & Anderson, 2016). The Fourth Amendment gives citizens the right “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects” (“Fourth Amendment,” n.d., n.p.). If this right is violated because law enforcement officers did not follow the correct procedure of obtaining a warrant that describes the person or items that will be seized, the search and seizure must be deemed unconstitutional (“Fourth Amendment,” n.d.). In the case of the defendant, it is evident that search and seizure misconduct of fellow officers occurred that violated the constitutional rights of the

When there is little privacy caused by the fourth amendment it should be looked at seriously. The 4th amendment allows law enforcement to use collect evidence from phone calls for using in court as evidence. Though they need permission from a judge to go through and use your calls they could use your conversations as evidence, as they can use it to catch terrorist and thieves. The intelligence agency can not only use phone calls, but they can also search your home and even your vehicle, obviously they need a warrant but there are a few cases where they do not need a warrant. An example of a case that they do not need a warrant is when a weapon or evidence that is needed is in plane sight, but anything not in plane sight you must have a warrant.

There are many good reasons that the Fourth Amendment is in order but there is also the fact that peoples’ privacy can be invaded using this amendment. Communications can be collected and retained, the communications receive no special protection, and nothing would prohibit the NSA from sharing information with military prosecutors. Communications received and given away can also include foreign intelligence information. This Amendment allows the NSA to maintain “knowledge databases” which the databases house internet data, including metadata that reveals online activities, as well as telephone numbers and email addresses that the agency had reason to believe are being used by U.S. people. Whenever a phone “moves into a new service area” updates

Charles Katz entered a telephone booth, closed the door, and made a telephone call to place an unlawful gambling wager. The FBI suspecting illegal transmission and had unbeknownst to Katz attached a recording device outside the phone booth to ease drop and record his telephone conversation. Katz was convicted on an eight-count indictment based on the recordings captured from the recording box. He challenged his conviction based on his Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the FBI. The Court of Appeals to the Ninth Circuit which upheld the conviction on the grounds that there was no physical intrusion. The Court ruled with Katz stating the FBI had violated his reasonable expectation of privacy.

Should the government be allowed to obtain wiretaps on anyone whom they deem suspicious without court oversight? There are few people that think that the government should be allowed to use wiretaps without others consent. Along with the few people, there are also few reasons why the people think that wiretaps should be allowed without consent of the person. One reason why wiretaps should be allowed is because wiretaps are helpful, and they could help in bad situations. If a person is missing, then they could be found with the help of using wiretaps to track their phone calls and things, to tell where they are going or where they are at.