Counterpoint: Wiretaps
Ash Dean
Issue date: 1/24/06 Section: Opinion
In case anyone missed the memo, President Bush has been attempting to unilaterally repeal the 4th Amendment for quite some time. Luckily for the rest of us, President Bush was caught red handed about three weeks ago. President Bush ordered the National Security Agency (NSA) to tap phone calls originating overseas to "suspected terrorists" located in the United States. It's not that wiretapping in and of itself is improper; it was the way in which the administration went about obtaining the taps. The NSA did not obtain warrants from a judge, or any other judicial officer, instead, acted under unilateral Presidential order. There was no probable cause to believe that the recipients of the tapped calls were plotting terrorist attacks on United States interests; the only information the NSA had was that the calls, which these individuals were receiving were from countries with ties to terrorism. For all the NSA knew, a recent immigrant from Iran was receiving a phone call from his sick mother who was still in Tehran, an obvious threat to national security.
The 4th Amendment was designed to protect Americans from abusive government power. By its express language the 4th Amendment bars unreasonable searches and permits the government to obtain a warrant only upon a showing of probable cause. The Supreme Court has found that every American's right to privacy is embodied in the 4th Amendment. To authorize intrusions of personal privacy without any basis is a clear violation of Constitutional rights. The recipient of a phone call has an expectation that the content of his telephone conversations will remain private. No one seeks to unwittingly disclose his or her personal problems to the public. The information available through these wire taps, is exactly the type of information that petty despots use to control their population. Even assuming that the tapped calls originated overseas, they were directed to individuals living in this country and the recipients of the phone calls maintained a privacy interest in the content of their conversations. If the government is permitted to indiscriminately tap telephone conversations coming into this country from overseas, it sets a dangerous precedent for the future. If the government is permitted to tap all incoming calls, next time, the government will go one step further until there is nothing left of the 4th Amendment but meaningless words on a piece of 240-year-old parchment.
The 4th Amendment was designed to protect Americans from abusive government power. By its express language the 4th Amendment bars unreasonable searches and permits the government to obtain a warrant only upon a showing of probable cause. The Supreme Court has found that every American's right to privacy is embodied in the 4th Amendment. To authorize intrusions of personal privacy without any basis is a clear violation of Constitutional rights. The recipient of a phone call has an expectation that the content of his telephone conversations will remain private. No one seeks to unwittingly disclose his or her personal problems to the public. The information available through these wire taps, is exactly the type of information that petty despots use to control their population. Even assuming that the tapped calls originated overseas, they were directed to individuals living in this country and the recipients of the phone calls maintained a privacy interest in the content of their conversations. If the government is permitted to indiscriminately tap telephone conversations coming into this country from overseas, it sets a dangerous precedent for the future. If the government is permitted to tap all incoming calls, next time, the government will go one step further until there is nothing left of the 4th Amendment but meaningless words on a piece of 240-year-old parchment.