Following the attacks that occurred on the World Trade Center in 2001 were many new laws and regulations. One of the most prominent was the PATRIOT Act, a clever acronym for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism”. This congressional act gave the Federal Bureau of Investigation a multitude of new powers in the guise of combating terrorism. One such power granted to the FBI was their use of national security letters (NSLs) in Section 505 of the act for combating domestic terrorism. These letters “seek customer and consumer transaction information in national security investigations from communications providers, financial institutions and credit agencies” (Gorham-Oscilowski, Jaeger 2008) concerning individuals suspected of engaging in “foreign counterintelligence”. Issue with the NSLs are that they violate the Fourth Amendment.
The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that people have the “right… to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures”. At the heart of the issue is the concept of individual privacy. Justice Louis Brandeis, in a dissenting opinion in Olmstead v. United States, states that “every unjustifiable intrusion by the Government upon the privacy of the individual, whatever the means employed, must be deemed a violation of the Fourth Amendment” (Gorham-Oscilowski, Jaeger 2008). The problem arises out of the fact that NSLs are used even when the FBI has no concrete evidence indicating participation in terrorism. This type of eavesdropping is extremely detrimental to the freedom and well-being of American citizens, not to mention unconstitutional.
Research on NSLs show that while Fourth Amendment supporters denounce it completely, Government claims that they are acting within the Constitution when conducting the surveillance. The problem Government must now face is that it has been proved of violating Fourth Amendment rights by the Supreme Court. In Doe v. Ashcroft, the court found that “the Fourth Amendment was violated by the absence of meaningful judicial review” (Sanchez, 2009) in a case where an internet service provider sued the government after receiving a request for an NSL.
The debate concerning individual privacy is as hotly debated now as ever. Government proposes that their warrantless searches are justified in the fight against terror. Individuals feel that the Government is cutting corners on constitutional processes in order to find as many criminals as possible. We would like to believe that the Government is acting justly to protect us, but the reality of the matter is that they have been shown to engage in unconstitutional practices in order to fulfill their own agenda.
Sources
Gorham-Oscilowski, U., Jaeger, P. T. 2008. “National Security Letters, the USA PATRIOT Act, and the Constitution: The tensions between national security and civil rights”. Government Information Quarterly, Volume 25, Issue 4, October 2008.
Sanchez, J. 2009. “Real Reform for the PATRIOT Act?”. Cato Institute. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10599&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CatoRecentOpeds+%28Cato+Recent+Op-eds%29
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