The Fourth Amendment has been
on the ropes since 9/11 and the passing of the Patriot act so there should be no shock for Americans when greeted with news
that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been monitoring their phone calls “on an “ongoing and daily basis”[1].
While this should not surprise most observers of US domestic surveillance policy
for the last 12 years, it is surely another nail in the coffin of the fourth
amendment and undermines the concept of the rule of law as “the communication
records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in
bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing”[2].
Thanks to a secret court order,
the FBI was allowed access to the phone records of US citizens via Verizon that
will detail the numbers of the caller and recipient, when and where it took
place and how long the call lasted[3].
The numerous breaches of fourth amendments that grants US citizens the right of privacy has clearly
been the strategy of the US government as it has been the policy of two
consecutive administrations to keep too close an eye on the communications and
movements of its citizens.
The NSA have been keeping a
close eye on the communications of US citizen for the last twelve years without
much in the way of due process or court warrants and now according to the ACLU,
daily “intercepts and stores 1.7 billion
emails, phone calls, texts, and other electronic communications”[4].
It is also a monster of an organization
dwarfing the size of the CIA and FBI
combined[5].
However, despite its power and size to snoop on US citizens, it hasn’t done it
without help.
Congress has helped shape the
conditions in which this story is possible as it rubber stamped the passing the
still controversial 2001 patriot act and more importantly to the context of this
story, the amendments to FISA in 2008 which weakened judicial oversight[6].
A number of corporations have played their part including AT&T who had cooperated
with the NSA in letting the agency access the records of their customers[7].
The Obama administration is
clearly moving away from the fourth amendment telling from its recent
appointments of former bush era appointees who were in favour of many of the
violation that took place during his regime. Former Bush
era deputy attorney general now shoe in for the position of director of the
FBI, was at the heart of one the number of scandals during the Bush
administration regarding the fourth
amendment when it was revealed that the NSA, ordered by the president, were
spying on Americans without judicial oversight[8].
In sum, the NSA’s further usurpation
of power to spy on US citizen is odious to witness as it undermines the fourth
amendment and the concept of the rule of law. Its actions have been helped by
successive administration looking to monitor the communications and movements
of US citizens and thanks to a largely pliant congress and a number of
corporations, their freedoms have been much the poorer for it.
[1]
G.Greenwald, 2013, NSA collecting phone records of millions daily, court order
reveals, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order
[2] Ibid
[3]
Ibid
[4]
ACLU, 2011, The NSA Unchained,
[5]
Ibid.
[6] Cato
Institute, 2009, Cato Handbook for policy makers: electronic surveillance, http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-handbook-policymakers/2009/9/hb111-28.pdf
[7] Ibid
[8]
G,Greenwald, 2013, Obama’s new FBI chief approved Bush’s NSA warrantless
wiretapping scheme, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/30/james-comey-fbi-bush-nsa
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