{"id":12586,"date":"2008-03-17T13:20:02","date_gmt":"2008-03-17T20:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/03\/17\/why-you-should-worry-about-spy-laws.html"},"modified":"2008-03-17T13:20:02","modified_gmt":"2008-03-17T20:20:02","slug":"why_you_should_worry_abou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/03\/17\/why_you_should_worry_abou.html","title":{"rendered":"Why you should worry about spy laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The standard response from apologists for internal security and spying processes is that, well, <em>if you aren&#8217;t doing something illegal, or you aren&#8217;t a political activist, why are you worried?<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/opinion\/la-op-sanchez16mar16,0,4039194.story\" target=\"_blank\">Here&#8217;s why<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It&#8217;s probably true that ordinary citizens uninvolved in political activism have little reason to fear being spied on, just as most Americans seldom need to invoke their 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech. But we understand that the 1st Amendment serves a dual role: It protects the private right to speak your mind, but it serves an even more important structural function, ensuring open debate about matters of public importance. You might not care about that first function if you don&#8217;t plan to say anything controversial. But anyone who lives in a democracy, who is subject to its laws and affected by its policies, ought to care about the second.<\/p>\n<p> Harvard University legal scholar William Stuntz has argued that the framers of the Constitution viewed the 4th Amendment as a mechanism for protecting political dissent. In England, agents of the crown had ransacked the homes of pamphleteers critical of the king &#8212; something the founders resolved that the American system would not countenance.<\/p>\n<p> In that light, the security-versus-privacy framing of the contemporary FISA debate seems oddly incomplete. Your personal phone calls and e-mails may be of limited interest to the spymasters of Langley and Ft. Meade. But if you think an executive branch unchecked by courts won&#8217;t turn its &#8220;national security&#8221; surveillance powers to political ends &#8212; well, it would be a first.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The standard response from apologists for internal security and spying processes is that, well, if you aren&#8217;t doing something illegal, or you aren&#8217;t a political activist, why are you worried?&nbsp;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,9,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeland-security","category-politics-law","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24931,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/30\/corporations-arent-people.html","url_meta":{"origin":12586,"position":0},"title":"Corporations Aren&#39;t People","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 30-Dec-11 9:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"They can't vote (yet), they aren't subject to criminal punishment, they can't serve in the military, they can't hold office, they ... well, they just aren't people. So why is SCOTUS protecting their First Amendment \"free speech\" rights to donate as much money as they want to political campaigns.It's wrong,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134695,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/15\/asset-forfeiture-case-2nd-amendment-implications.html","url_meta":{"origin":12586,"position":1},"title":"An asset forfeiture case with 2nd Amendment implications","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 15-Sep-17 7:49am","format":false,"excerpt":"A lot of times its the Super Law-and-Order types that are most in favor of asset forfeiture laws (\"Hey, this X looks like it was part of a crime; we are taking it from you, even if we don't actually charge you with anything\"). The ostensible reasons for such laws\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed-8.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":30653,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/17\/are-funerals-a-significant-government-interest.html","url_meta":{"origin":12586,"position":2},"title":"Are funerals a &quot;significant government interest&quot;?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Oct-12 7:40am","format":false,"excerpt":"I will go toe to toe with anybody in my loathing of the Fred Phelps clan and the Westboro Baptist Church. And from an emotional standpoint, I sympathized deeply with anyone whose graveside grief has been disturbed by their repulsive protests.But that sympathy doesn't, IMO, warrant creating yet another exception\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2996,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/08\/23\/give_it_to_pila.html","url_meta":{"origin":12586,"position":3},"title":"&#8220;Give it to Pilar &#8212; and only to Pilar&#8221;","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 23-Aug-02 2:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Wonder of wonder and miracle of miracles, the TSA may actually issue a common-sense amendment to the idiocy that passes for airport security these days. To wit, those annoying questions...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics &amp; Law&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics &amp; Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19757,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/03\/unblogged-bits-mon-3-jan-11-2230.html","url_meta":{"origin":12586,"position":4},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Mon.  3-Jan-11 2230)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 3-Jan-11 10:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... The new litmus test - \"But that was before the GOP fell off the right-wing cliff. Now every Republican who was even remotely sensible on this 'better have an explanation, an excuse or a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Potpourri&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22292,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/21\/rick-perry-loves-the-constitution-except-where-its-evil.html","url_meta":{"origin":12586,"position":5},"title":"Rick Perry loves the Constitution, except where it&#8217;s EVIL!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 21-Aug-11 7:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The US Constitution is a great thing. It's not perfect, by any means -- it has been amended over a couple dozen times, but then, that's not bad for over two centuries track record. So I don't object to revisions to the Constitution per se, but I object to ones\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Elections 2012&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2012","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2012"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-thumbs-up.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-thumbs-up.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-thumbs-up.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-thumbs-up.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-thumbs-up.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}