Pros And Cons Of The NSA Scandal

NSA Scandal: Constitutional or Not?
After the wiki leaks incident, some citizens feel that the Fourth Amendment was threatened. Large debates have been sparked over this topic, some defending the National Surveillance Agency’s actions as constitutional. The other side, defending the fourth amendment of American citizens. The NSA’s surveillance of American citizens caused a debate over whether or not the Fourth Amendment of the constitution was being violated.
The NSA, and the Fourth Amendment have been a touchy subject for some American citizens. The NSA, or National Surveillance Agency, is being closely watched by American citizens since a debate has formed as to whether or not the actions of the NSA regarding the surveillance of American

On one side people believe that the NSA’s surveillance of American citizens was constitutional since the internet is not physical property and that the internet is public and everyone can use it that it. The Fourth Amendment also only protects the physical belonging of the citizens within their homes, and since the internet is not a tangible item that the actions of the NSA did not violate anyone’s rights as an American. Another piece to the argument is that the internet is not technically in anyone’s home or a physical piece of property. This supports the previous argument that the NSA is not taking anything from anyone or physically disrupting anyone’s peace by looking through people’s whereabouts online. Some also argue that is a safety issue as a reason to excuse the NSA’s action. One side argues that previous restrictions on the NSA led to a fatal mistake, 9/11. “Domestic- and foreign-intelligence officials could not share information or seamlessly monitor communications coming into, or passing through, the United States from abroad.”(Herman et al. 3). After such restrictions were lifted “the NSA began collecting phone-call and e-mail records—their addressing information, rather than their content—to analyze patterns that might emerge once they were linked to a suspected terrorist message “(Herman et.al 3). The article even goes as far to say that “The current head of the NSA, General

The other side of this argument is that mass surveillance is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. This is what Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy had to say on the matter. “’Americans deserve to understand more about the NSA's collection and use of their phone records, and in particular about the types of systemic problems revealed in these documents,’”(Risen 4). In a similar way according to Risen “the American public remains wary of the threat of terrorism but is also critical of government surveillance programs put in place”, and that “majority of Americans ‘oppose mass surveillance of people's Internet and phone usage for use in future investigations.’“(Risen 6). People on this side of the argument feel it is their right to their own privacy given to them by the fourth amendment and feel that the Fourth amendment should protect them and their privacy without question, or any loopholes. While the Fourth Amendment does not exclusively mention technology, it should be a acknowledged that when the Bill of Rights was created, technology was not anticipated and it is the job of the people to recognize and adapt the Fourth Amendment to fit modern times and not use the literal wording of a document made hundreds of years ago to their advantage to be able to encroach on the people’s personal actions online. Some People also think that what they post on the internet IS their property