FISA Pros And Cons

The Constitution of the United States was drafted in 1787 by our Founding Fathers and has been abided by ever since; its first ten amendments, the Bill of Rights, are an assurance provided to the population of America to ensure the protection of people’s rights under the power of the federal government. We fool ourselves into believing that our rights were protected back then and we continue to fool ourselves by believing our rights are protected now. The federal government has been lying to our faces and spying behind our backs for a while, attempting to profile certain citizens based on unreasonable and prejudiced standards such as religious affiliation and race. Additionally, legislators such as Ted Lieu and Joel Anderson have proven that …show more content…
This act essentially “gives the National Security Agency almost unchecked power to monitor Americans’ international phone calls and emails” (ACLU). If American citizens were not convinced that the government was spying before, they were definitely swayed by the reauthorization of this act to the opposite side. In 2004, before the implementation of the FISA Acts, only 60% of Americans felt that their civil liberties should not be violated for the sake of privacy; 10 years later, this percentage rose to 74% (Pew Research Center). Although correlation does not prove causation, the government’s increased involvement in the lives of American citizens seems to highlight the fact there is a reason for the checks and balances system that is currently being …show more content…
His sugarcoated argument consists of the claim that the NSA has to “sift through millions of irrelevant communications” in order to decipher whether any are related to terrorist activity. While the notion that wiretapping is a possible source of vital information can be legitimate in certain situations, warrantless wiretapping is a violation of our rights as Americans. The government is spying on American citizens and has been for a while now; it may make the claim that security is worth the sacrifice of privacy, but we as Americans have seen this pattern before. An everlasting concept in American politics and history is the controversial balance between liberty and order—whether to give Americans their natural rights or to take them away partially for the sake of safety. It is an arduous task, impossible even, to please everybody, a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment should not be regarded as a slight bend in the rules. This violation should not be dismissed with the firm wave of a hand just because it happens to come up with a few pieces of information while simultaneously invading millions of Americans’ right to privacy in their communications. It is inhumane to strip humans of their private lives. It is inhumane to instill in humans the fear of wondering

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Related Documents: FISA Pros And Cons

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Analysis