ACLU v. NSA Debate

Should the Executive Branch be able to spy on Americans without a court warrant in order to try to prevent future terrorist attacks on the U.S.?


National Security Agency v. American Civil LIberties Union

The chief executive has declared that NSA has the power to randomly tap people's phones and email and all other electronics without a warrant.  ACLU challenged this law as a violation of the Fourth Amendment, and a breach of a privacy.  The NSA believes they are within their bounds because they only use this vast technology to catch terrorists and to prevent attacks like 9/11.  This first came to the Court in 2006, and in 2008 Congress passed FISA which gives NSA even more unchecked power.

The NSA is in fault for illegally violating people's constitutional rights to protection from unwarranted and unnecessary search and seizure.


In Katz v. U.S. the 4th Amendment was extended to cover the wiretapping of phones.  In Mapp v. Ohio illegally seized evidence was not allowed to be used in trials.  The 4th Amendment protects the people against unreasonable searches and seizures.  My opponent argued that in Korematsu v. U.S. and Schenck v. U.S. the national security trumped individual rights.  Also that there is good cause for this, because terrorists could bomb our school.