Being Watched: Legal Challenges to Government Surveillance
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| Anteprima |
A
riveting history of the Supreme Court decision that set the legal
precedent for citizen challenges to government surveillance The tension
between national security and civil rights is nowhere more evident than
in the fight over government domestic surveillance. Governments must be
able to collect information at some level, but surveillance has become
increasingly controversial due to its more egregious uses and abuses,
which tips the balance toward increased—and sometimes total—government
control.This struggle came to forefront in the early 1970s, after
decades of abuses by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies were
revealed to the public, prompting both legislation and lawsuits
challenging the constitutionality of these programs. As the plaintiffs
in these lawsuits discovered, however, bringing legal challenges to
secret government surveillance programs in federal courts faces a
formidable obstacle in the principle that limits court access only to
those who have standing, meaning they can show actual or imminent
injury—a significant problem when evidence of the challenged program is
secret. In Being Watched, Jeffrey L. Vagle draws on the legacy of the
1972 Supreme Court decision in Laird v. Tatum to tell the fascinating
and disturbing story of jurisprudence related to the issue of standing
in citizen challenges to government surveillance in the United States.
It examines the facts of surveillance cases and the reasoning of the
courts who heard them, and considers whether the obstacle of standing to
surveillance challenges in U.S. courts can ever be overcome. Vagle
journeys through a history of military domestic surveillance, tensions
between the three branches of government, the powers of the presidency
in times of war, and the power of individual citizens in the ongoing
quest for the elusive freedom-organization balance. The history brings
to light the remarkable number of similarities among the contexts in
which government surveillance thrives, including overzealous military
and intelligent agencies and an ideologically fractured Supreme Court.
More broadly, Being Watched looks at our democratic system of government
and its ability to remain healthy and intact during times of national
crisis. A compelling history of a Supreme Court decision and its
far-reaching consequences, Being Watched is essential reading for anyone
seeking to understand the legal justifications for—and objections
to—surveillance.
