4th Amendment Dead?
by Tim Sullivan
 The recent revelations about domestic surveillance of U.S citizens and residents pinpoints the problems of intercepting messages from terrorists outside the United States to their allies inside this country.
During World War 2 and the Cold War messages from our enemies to their agents in this country or to our agents inside their countries were sent by radio transmitters.
This made the detection and arrest of an agent quite simple. Furthermore, a warrant was not needed to intercept these messages as radio transmitters and receivers were not and are not covered by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution which reads:
The right of 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.
Today messages from terrorists to their allies are made by cell phone, email or websites. Telephones and email are covered under the Fourth Amendment.
The problem arises when NASA intercepts emails and cell phone messages to agents living in the United States; who then transmit these messages to other agents residing in the United States.
Anyone living in the United States, not just Citizens, is protected by the Fourth Amendment.
The problem posed by this new technology is how can warrants be issued in a timely fashion when the terrorists are know to change their email addresses and cell phones with great rapidity.
During the current debate, it has been claimed that the judges responsible for issuing these warrant may do so after the fact depending on the circumstances.
Therefore, the governments should make available to the courts a computerized list of the cell phones and email addresses for which a warrant is requested.
The Government should swear of affirm that need for surveillance of these cell phones and email address were prompted by messages received by these cell phones and email address from known terrorists or terrorist organizations outside of our country.
This will give the courts and the intelligence committees of Congress a paper trail to review where warrants have been issued after the fact so that abuse of the Fourth Amendment can be prevented.
It is urgent that some procedure, if not perfect, must be established to prevent abuse of the surveillance technology now possessed by our government and to enable our government to monitor the messages of this country's enemies
Email the Editor |
