Opening: Benjamin Franklin once famously said: “They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety.” I hope by the end of this speech you agree with this founding father. Because, that’s right, we are talking about the USA PATRIOT Act and the idea of freedom versus security, otherwise known as Hollywood’s go-to theme for the past decade. This is how I imagine how every conversation goes in every writers’ room in LA: “Hey, Mark?” “Yeah, Steve, what do you need?” “Well, I just can’t seem to make my superhero screenplay appeal to a modern audience.” “Hmm…Have you tried setting your story against the backdrop of a society conflicted by its own unstoppable spiral into an Orwellian hellscape?” …show more content…
In a 2007 article in Law and Philosophy, Alan Rubel states that Section 213 and Section 215 are some of the most controversially far-reaching.
1. Section 213, known as the “sneak-and-peak” search, is a provision that permits law enforcement agents to perform searches without notifying the subject of the search.
2. While, Section 215, known as the “gag-rule”, is a provision that allows subpoenas of various information to be handled covertly.
3. These are, quite noticeably, in direct conflict with the Fourth Amendment which is as everyone knows is “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
B. Furthermore, as Teresa Lucas states in a 2012 issue of the Idaho Librarian, Section 217 demands Internet Service Providers to hand over their client’s internet search history.
1. And what makes this detail worse is that it is everyone, not just suspected terrorists, that have their information stored in NSA data collection
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Simple: We repeal it. Just get it out of here. Turn the NSA Data Center in Utah into giant indoor mini golf complex. It will become the only reason non-Mormons visit Utah. Secondly, we need a new amendment guaranteeing our right to privacy.
A. As Oliver Diggelmann and Maria Nicole Cleis wrote in a 2014 article published in the Human Rights Law Review, the right to privacy has two distinct meanings: “privacy as freedom from society” and “privacy as dignity.”
1. Both of these would be protected under the umbrella idea of the “right to privacy” amendment.
B. However, in a 2015 article in Philosophy & Public Affairs, Andrei Marmor asserts that the right to privacy, while being a necessary human right, would not clear cut.
1. Which brings up the question: Do we want this amendment to be that broad?
2. In which, the answer is: Yes. We are Americans. We liked our constitutional amendments to be confusingly open-ended.
3. More importantly I want this amendment to be so broad that literally nothing impedes on privacy gets passed.
Proposal: The USA PATRIOT Act is a horrendous abuse of governmental power that violates rights usually guaranteed to American citizens. This act should be repealed and, additionally, elected officials should move to amend the U.S. Constitution to include a right to
Being in the privacy of one’s home, gives you comfort, the means to say what you feel, or how you feel. What if someone was listening? Wouldn’t that be uncomfortable? Knowing everything said in one’s house is being heard, and the family inside of it has no clue. One’s house doesn’t seem so comfortable anymore does it? The U.S. Patriot Act violates many privacy and freedom rights given to you buy the bill of rights. The U.S. Patriot Act was written after 9/11 a tragic event in American history that eventually lead to the Afghanistan war. Although the Afghanistan war is over, the Act is still in place and has not been removed. The purpose of this essay is to inform the people of America that the U.S. Patriot Act rapes the nation of its rights.
Sixty percent of all Americans wish to see the Patriot act be reformed. The Patriot Act gives the power to the FBI and Homeland Security to spy on many Americans and collect personal information. It invades privacy, violates civil liberties and the Fourth Amendment, and does not contribute to the fight against terrorism; it takes away freedom of speech and any form of privacy from Americans. In addition to invading the personal lives of many Americans, the patriot act has also been proven to have no effect on stopping potential terrorist attacks in the United States. The Patriot act is a violation of civil rights and an invasion of privacy and needs to be repealed.
As an American, we know, and are immune to this country starting to build on technology. Where every call or click online can be traced back, stored, searched and put together to reveal a portrait of private life. However, current law gives little privacy protection to information about these activities, overstepping the First and Fourth Amendment safeguards that are guaranteed to individual freedoms. There are two cases to be discussed, Smith v. Maryland and United States v. Miller, two of the most important Fourth Amendment decisions of the 20th century. “In these two cases, the Court held that people are not entitled to an expectation of privacy in information they voluntarily provide to third parties” (Thompson, para. 1). This proposition, know as the third-party doctrine, permits the government access to a vast amount of information about individuals, such as the websites they visit, who they have emailed, the phone numbers they call, and their utility, banking, and education records.
As the Fourth Amendment recognizes the right to privacy, its application has the tendency to spark debate among individuals (Peak).
Privacy is an especially equivocal idea, in particularly because invasion of privacy is a concept that is arguably questionable. Privacy has been defined as the right to be left alone without unwarranted intrusion by government, media, or other institutions or individuals. While this definition serves as a quick start to the right of privacy, there are still several interpretations as to what may or may not constitute as an invasion of privacy. What one person may believe to be an innocent curiosity, another may feel as though it is a deliberate invasion of privacy. Often these disputes make their way into courtrooms and are subjected to controversy and evaluation.
Your right to privacy of freedom from unwarranted government intrusion into your personal and private affairs.
Such as the right for people to be secure, in their persons and homes from unlawful searches.
One of its most controversial provisions is Section 215, which allows Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents to request "certain business records" after obtaining a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court. The FISA court proceedings are secret and its decisions are not subject to appeal. Although libraries and bookstores are not specifically mentioned by the USA PATRIOT Act, many legal experts agree that the section's language allows the FBI to request records from public and university libraries and bookstores. While the language of Section 215 is vague, many privacy and civil liberties advocates claim that authorities may obtain records about who has been borrowing or buying which books or using which Internet
may be considered privacy as a natural right that provides the basis for the legal right. Therefore, the right to privacy is protected under private law, constitutionally protected in the majority of democratic societies and expressed in various legislative forms (Britz, 1996). Privacy is also an essential condition for other rights as for freedom and personal autonomy. Besides, acknowledgment of a person's right to freedom means recognizing an individual as an autonomous human being.
The biggest issue I saw with this act was the fact that the government is able to tap into people’s telephone and listen to phone calls. All levels of privacy are now gone when the FBI are able to do such
Throughout history the United States has experienced many cases in which individual rights and values have been at the forefront of social debate. More specifically, one of these debates includes the independence that the American public should have in regards to privacy and if government obligation should allow for governance of these rights in order to uphold the security of the nation.
National security is vital because it helps the police monitor criminals and terrorists. People suspected of any terrorists activities have no place to hide; everything is monitored from “telephone conversations, telegrams” (Frank Church) to internet searches and surveillance cameras are all monitored. This provides a sense of security for citizens.
In the end it is imperative that American citizens are assured security from bias governmental inspection, or any sort of personal data storage. The amendment needs to be reinforced so that organizations may not intrude on an innocent citizen’s privacy, only exception being an individual tried and found guilty. Just because the digital age is thriving doesn’t mean that privacy should
The idea of privacy protection for private citizens is rooted in history back to the Magna Carta. With the passage of time and the evolution of communication the laws of the United States have attempted to ensure a balance between security of the nation and protecting privacy. The current state of privacy and the law is now in a state of flux as citizens have begun to rely more and more on technological means of communication and have integrated privacy invading technology into their daily lives. It is not uncommon today for the average citizen to have all their conversations and movements tracked and stored into massive electronic databases simply because they carry a cell phone. The use of the internet as a means of communication and
In basic words we can say, Right to privacy is the right to keep another out of one’s kitchen and bedroom. But in no way it shall be misinterpreted that it is an absolute right. The government can always curtail the rights reasonably for the welfare of the state and other reasons as may be required.