"Here's what now should be taken as an operating procedure in any discussion of the NSA..."

[quakerboy]

61. Why?

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.[1]


Where and when does the constitution apply?

There are level of this argument. I think many of us here on DU would agree that the prism program presents a situation where there will be specific violations of the 4th

But we also have arguments about whether they should be allowed to use the full body scans on us when we fly. Thats a search of my person, and they certainly have seized many a pocket knife, etc. But taking it a step further, if privacy is inviolable, can the TSA legitimately screen our bags bit scanner or by opening them up when we go on an airplane? If the TSA stops scanning my effects, can individual airlines do it themselves? Presumeably they are private companies, so the constitution does not apply to them in the same way.

With the NSA... I dont know. Maybe theirs a similar program. Is there any part of the fourth that explicitly prevents a private company like Booz Allen Hamilton from creating a program like prism? Its not something the framers could have reasonably expected to imagine, so they didn't answer it. Is your email part of your "papers"? Is a private company hired by the government subject to following the constitutional limitations, which as i understand it, were placed on the government?

I think the line has been crossed. Our Government has become too entangled with private interests, and the spying has become a way to make money. Above and beyond any legitimate or nefarious purpose that the spying itself might serve. But there is a line, this country should not be a libertarian fantasy world where your rights are limited only by your ability to enforce them. There are things that are legitimate concerns of society that will infringe on personal liberty and privacy.

The problem is determining those things. Right now, we are strongly skewed in determining those things in such a way as to profit some individual or small group of individuals, rather than our society as a whole, or even a majority of those in that society.