A lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. Government challenging the constitutionality of the phone surveillance program operated by the National Security Agency as revealed this week by The Guardian. The suit alleges that this information gathering of citizen’s records violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Fourth Amendment is a protection from unlawful search and seizures by the government. The language of the Fourth Amendment states: “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 warrant 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 The lawsuit which was filed by the American Civil Liability Union (ACLU) takes issue with the metadata that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court compelled Verizon, Facebook and Google to hand over to the National Security Agency under the Patriot Act. In its complaint, it alleges: “The practice is akin to snatching every American’s address book – with annotations detailing whom we spoke to, when we talked, for how long, and from where. It gives the government comprehensive record of our associations and public movements, revealing a wealth of detail about our familial, political, professional, religious, and intimate association.”
A recent CBS News poll showed that while most approved of government collection of phone records of Americans suspected of terrorist activity and internet activities of foreigners, a majority disapproved of federal agencies collecting the phone records of ordinary Americans.
We currently do not have enough information to have an opinion. Even if the majority of Americans believe that the government’s need to investigate terrorist threats over the need to protect personal privacy, the issue to be determined is not whether the disclosure of a CIA employee– turned NSA contractor who admitted to The Guardian of the gathering surveillance program, but whether our government has violated the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure.
Steve H. Tokarski,
Publisher
Redakcja
