Determine whether the government’s overriding need to fight terrorism outweighs the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th and 14th Amendment rights of the people within the United State s.
The US need to fight terrorism should not outweigh the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 14th amendment rights of its people. The government needs to follow the due process of the law as stipulated in the amendments in question. The freedoms enshrined in the constitution that protect religion, speech, and rights to assemble peaceably should not be overridden by the desire to fight terrorism. The government needs to enforce the fourth amendment by forbidding unreasonable searches and seizures which infringe on the rights of citizens. Probable cause should be used as a ground for conducting such searches (Gryzlo, 2016). Furthermore, the rights of individuals to receive a fair trial should be respected in the fight against terrorism by according them a fair trial through a grand jury and given them the chance to defend themselves through counsel. Such trials need to be speedy and impartial to ensure that justice is dispensed equally to all persons irrespective of race or religion. However, the need for national security should not be used to circumvent the law but rather enhance and enforce it to the letter.
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Evaluate whether or not 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th and 14th Amendments apply to terrorists since the writers of the Constitution could not have envisioned mass shootings and suicide bombers .
The 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 14th, amendments apply to terrorists too since it touches on constitutional rights and freedoms of individuals which need to be protected irrespective of the crime committed. Alleged terrorists' rights and freedoms, just like any person, need to be respected since they are protected by the law. Terrorists too need to be taken through a fair and impartial grand jury trial which is speedy. They also need to be protected against unreasonable searches and seizures of their property just like any other citizen. The due process of the law should not be discriminatory in dispensing justice to all accused irrespective of their crime. Additionally, religion should not be used as a basis to deny some individuals their constitutionally given rights and privileges. Human rights are the basis of these amendments which cannot be denied to suspected terrorists.
Assess whether the USA PATRIOT Act, USA FREEDOM Act, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act violate the Constitution.
The USA Patriot Act, The USA Freedom Act and the Foreign Intelligence Act are pieces of legislation which violate the Constitution. The USA Patriot Act gave the US government the power to enforce the law by broadening the 'Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. However, this piece of legislation has a negative effect on individual privacy which is enshrined in the Constitution without necessarily reducing the threat of terrorism. It allows law enforcement agencies to request for warrants in investigations that are focused on foreign intelligence which also includes US citizens. It has increased the use of surveillance equipment and relaxed some court standards for such approvals. It touches on certain types of records such as educational, library and health records. It allows for search warrants and immediate access. Additionally, court hearings are also done in secret which is a gross violation of the law which requires that a trial be held under a grand jury. It introduces elements of lack of impartiality and injustice which are the cornerstone of the Fifth Amendment.
On the other hand, The Freedom Act, is that that denies individual citizens the right to access public information due to security reasons and the threat of terrorism. It regards information as confidential when it identifies the technical details of specific weaknesses in critical infrastructure to an act of terrorism (Muroff, 2005). The Act aims to protect both public and private property from acts of terrorism or criminal activity. However, such a law violates the constitution in that it gives citizens the freedom to access public information and a denial should be regarded as an abuse of the law.
Determine whether United States Government violated the Constitution by its actions pursuant to the USA PATRIOT Act, USA FREEDOM Act, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
A few weeks after the September 11 attacks, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act which was a revision of the surveillance laws which increased the government's powers to spy on its own citizens and at the same time reduced on powers exercised by public accountability, judiciary, and the capacity of challenging searches by government agencies in court. The government was now able to scrutinize records on activities of individuals which were held by third parties. these included secret searches, intelligence searches, and "trap and trace searches, these activities were in violation of the fourth amendment which stipulates that the government has no powers to conduct searches without first obtaining a warrant and showing probable cause why an individual has committed or will commit a crime (Poynder, 2002). Furthermore, it also violates the first amendment when it gives law enforcement agencies the power to conduct investigations on American citizens for exercising their constitutionally given freedom of speech. Additionally, it also violates the fourth amendment by its failure to give notice to the persons whose privacy it has compromised. This is a key element in due process which is also guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. The same also applies to the Freedom and Foreign Surveillance Acts. This is because they all touch on the infringement of the rights and freedoms of American citizens without the due process of the law.
Assess whether the 4th Amendment requirement of probable cause should be waived when investigating terrorism .
When investigating terrorism the fourth amendment need not be waived because it touches on the rights and freedom of suspected terrorists which are also human rights issues. It is wrong for enforcement agencies to conduct searches and seizures of property and individuals without probable cause irrespective of the nature of crime. Such searches require probable cause for search warrants to be used. There needs to be solid reasons why a search should be conducted with specific details about the said criminal activity. Random and unreasonable searches are an infringement of an individual's right to privacy which is enshrined in the constitution. It is, therefore, unconstitutional to conduct searches and seizures on individuals and property without probable cause.
References
Gryzlo, J. (2016). A Balancing Act: Fourth Amendment Protections and the Reasonable Scope of Go Reasonable Scope of Government Investigatory Access to E-mail Accounts. St. John Law Review, 2(90), 495-524
Muroff, C. (2005). Terrorists and tennis courts: how legal interpretations of the freedom of information act and new laws enacted to prevent terrorist attacks will shape the public's ability to access critical infrastructure information. University of Florida Journal of law and Public policy.
Poynder, R. (2002). The Price of freedom is eternal Vigilance: The USA Patriot has been viewed by some with a healthy dose of skepticism. Information Today.
