Saturday, December 17, 2011

Terry Gross Interview- "Interpreting the Constitution in the Digital Era"

Facts:
  1. New technologies such as GPS monitors that can track your every movement, brain scans that can see lies forming in your brain, and advancements in genetic engineering that may soon allow parents to engineer what their children will look and be like are challenging the Constitution in many ways.
  2. These technologies challenge things like personal vs. private space, freedom of speech and our own individual autonomy.
  3. The United States v. Jones Supreme Court case is considering whether or not policemen need a warrant from a judge before attaching a secret GPS monitor to a car to track a suspect around the clock. 
  4. This is related to the 4th Amendment's right of the people to be secure in their houses, persons, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures (will it be violated?).
  5. An argument is the 4th Amendment only bans searches without warrants in private spaces and the GPS is an extension of human surveillance. 
  6. Rosen believes this "GPS case has the potential to be the most important privacy case of the decade. 
  7. The Olmstead v. United States case ruled that neither the 4th nor 5th Amendment protects defendants against having personal converstations wiretapped by federal agents.  
  8. The Katz v. United States case overruled the previous court case and extended the 4th Amendment to include all areas where person "has a reasonable expectation of privacy."
  9. The Constitution 3.0 provides hypothetical scenarios and addresses questions about security, freedom of speech, privacy, and the constitutional right against self-incrimination.
  10. The first time the constitutionality of wiretapping was decided in court was in the 1920s with Justice Brandeis. 
Questions: 
  1. How is one defined to being a "suspect," where federal agents may be allowed to wiretap his/her private conversations?
  2. Do people really have much privacy anymore, since the government has the ability to use such technology to wiretap, track people's specific locations, and having all access to the internet?
  3. Will Congress create a new bill regarding this issue?
  4. How serious is this issue for everyday citizens?
  5. Should citizens have to worry about the things they say or do in public, since there's a chance federal agents may be listening to your conversations?

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