2015-16 Policy Resolution

introducing

Domestic Surveillance

Today’s Presentation

We have features for every step of the way

1Introduction & Topicality 2 Advantages,

Plans, Das, Ks, Counterplans

3Strategic Considerations

Introductory IssuesRESOLVED: THE UNITED STATES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD SUBSTANTIALLY CURTAIL ITS DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE.

Resolution

1

Lauria Poitras

Grew out issue brought to light by three individuals

Background

Edward Snowden

Glenn Greenwald

Snowden primarily concerned about federal mass surveillance and mass counter-terror surveillance conducted through electronic means

International implications excluded but some international surveillance is domestic

A lot of the topic will fall outside of this immediate controversy – immigration, Muslim communities, war on drugs, welfare

Topic intersects a lot of interesting areas – racism, privacy and other rights, terrorism, security. Security v. Liberty/personal freedom

Lots of good Affirmative cases, most popular probably not in core topic area

Snowden and the Topic

Edward Snowden

Glenn Greenwald

Topi

calit

yFederal government. Central government in D.C. Three branches.

Surveillance. To keep close watch over someone or something. Physical observation, interception of personal communications, the use of undercover agents, subpoenaing records, audio and video recordings, and the collection of banking and other personal information.

Mass vs. targeted. What standards govern targeted surveillance? Should those standards apply to mass surveillance?

Surveillance conducted for reasons other than crime control – public health, welfare monitoring. Should the topic be limited to people? Curtail “to reduce in extent or quantity; impose a restriction on” (Google Definitions).

“To impose a restriction on” creates more Negative ground.

Topi

calit

yIts. “of or relating to itself especially as possessor, agent, or object of an action”

Two ways to access state programs

(a) Court action(b) Joint programs

Domestic means “existing or occurring inside a particular country; not foreign or international.”

BUT

-- foreign calls and emails pass through US servers

The report also filled in a gap about the evolving legality of the warrantless wiretapping program…to direct the N.S.A. to collect Americans’ international phone calls and emails, from network locations on domestic soil, without the individual warrants required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA…. Judge Vinson’s resistance led Congress to enact, in August 2007, the Protect America Act, a temporary law permitting warrantless surveillance of foreigners from domestic network locations[3].

Charlie Savage, January 11, 2015, “F.B.I. is Broadening Its Surveillance Role, Report Shows, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/12/us/politics/beyond-nsa-fbi-is-assuming-a-larger-surveillance-role-report-shows.html?_r=0 DOA: 1-12-15

2 Topic Arguments

Advantages, Plans, Disadvantages, Kritiks, Counterplans

Many plans, common harms

Advantages

Privacy. “Core” advantage.

Right to be left alone, secure in one’s person, have information about oneself kept secret, right to be free from interference, right to association right to personal decisions.

Griswold v. Ct: 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 9th amendments

Privacy Act of 1974. E-Government Act of 2002.

Mosaic theory

Tyranny. Threatens association, creates dominance of the government (discrimination, coercion. Not far-fetched – government abused power in the past.

Strong Advantages to Choose from

Freedom of Expression.

Racism

- Muslim leaders under mass surveillance

- Informant programs in Muslim communities

- Local/state police surveillance programs in Black and Hispanic communities (Mass, targeted)

- Surveillance of (illegal) immigrants

Strong Advantages to Choose from

Orioles Executive Vice President John Angelos, son of majority owner Peter Angelos,

Internet freedom. Global impacts

Economy.

Internet fracturing.

Executive power abuse.

Hegemony. Soft power. Economic power/technological power. Hard power.

Infopolitics

Biopolitics. Biopower is the power of the state over individuals that is achieved through the regulation of every day life

- Public health surveillance- Welfare surveillance- Drug testing- Biometric surveillance

Strong Advantages to Choose from

Securitization/Threat Construction.

Strong Advantages to Choose from

Many great cases!

Plans Cases

Background

• 9-11 attacks created the impetus and legal changes that make mass surveillance possible

• CIA, NSA, DIA couldn’t share information with FBI because of FISA.

• FISA passed in the 1970s because Nixon was using intelligence services to spy on political opponents. FISC was also created to check any use of foreign intelligence.

• Post 9-11 FISA amended to Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing

• Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (PATRIOT) Act.. --- Section 215 enables meta data collection. Query with FISC approval

• --- Section 505. National Security Letters. Access customer records without probable cause

----Section 702. Collects contents about foreigners in a PRISM database. Sweeps up content of Americans.Executive Order 12333. Attorney General can use surveillance techniques as long as directed against a foreign power. Americans swept up. Usually collected by NSA’s MYSTIC and RETRO programs.

Simultaneous edits on one single document. No more waiting your turn or managing multiple versions.

There might be 1,000 proposalsSome evidence indicates 1,000 programs

*Incidental domestic information collected for foreign intelligence can’t be used*Limit the length of data retention from public sources*No cross-sharing between intelligence and law enforcement*Intelligence Inspector General*Privacy & Liberties Oversight Board*Can’t search contents without a warrant

Federal Mass Surveillance

*Private companies keep collected information, government needs a warrant to get*Limit Executive Order 12333

Federal Mass Surveillance

*Immigration – high tech surveillance on the border; *War on drugs*Muslim Communities

Plans that Apply to Federal Mass Surveillance in Areas

*Stronger privacy standard/definition that incorporates privacy rights*Limit on total amount of data collected and length of storage*Can’t use any surveillance without a warrant, exclusionary rule would apply*Use of DNA data (collected at state & local levels, shared at federal level*No geolocation tracking without a warrant*Drone limits

Plans that Apply to All Law Enforcement

For example, in Maryland v. King, the Supreme Court held that the collection of DNA samples upon arrest, a practice used by federal and state law enforcement, was constitutional.

Twenty-eight other states and the federal government have also enacted statutes authorizing or mandating the collection of DNA from individuals upon arrest. n4 The United States Supreme Court examined the constitutionality of this group of statutes under the Fourth Amendment n5 in Maryland v. King. n6 The Court found that the policy instituted by the Maryland statute did not violate the protections of the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures, holding that: When officers make an arrest supported by probable cause to hold for a serious offense and they bring the suspect to the station to be detained in custody, taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee’s DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. (Rachel Cox, 2015, Rachel Cox is a 2014 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, American Criminal Law review, Unethical Intrusion: The Disproportionate Impact of Law Enforcement DNA Sampling on Minority Populations, http://www.americancriminallawreview.com/files/2014/1654/8722/Unethical_Intrusion.pdf, p. 155)

*Disease surveillance*Surveillance of those on welfare -- Welfare as surveillance

Arun Kundnani and Deepa Kumar, March 2015, Race Surveillance and Empire, Kundani is a Professor @ NYU, Kumar is a journalist, http://www.kundnani.org/2015/03/21/race-surveillance-and-empire-2/ DOA: 3-28-15

With the transformation of the welfare state into a security state, its embedding in everyday life was not undone but diverted to different purposes. Social services were reorganized into instruments of surveillance. Public aid became increasingly conditional on upholding certain behavioral norms that were to be measured and supervised by the state, implying its increasing intrusion into the lives of the poor—culminating in the “workfare” regimes of the Clinton administration. 50 In this context, a new model of crime control came into being.

Nontraditional Surveillance

Why does the government conduct surveillance?

Disadvantages

*Private companies keep collected information, government needs a warrant to get*Limit Executive Order 12333

Core Disadvantages

Presidential Politics/Political Capital.

Elections

Terrorism

Executive Authority/Power

Federalism

Impact-turn disadvantages. Soft power bad. Hegemony bad. Economic growth bad.

*Private companies keep collected information, government needs a warrant to get*Limit Executive Order 12333

Court Disadvantages

Court Politics

Court Activism/Minimalism

Court Legitimacy

Case & Controversy

Linking Presidential Politics/Elections

Many plans, common harms

Counterplans

*Private companies keep collected information, government needs a warrant to get*Limit Executive Order 12333

Agent Counterplans

States – Legislatures. Constitutional Amendment. Courts.

-- Politics (PC/Elections) or Court Das. Federalism

Congress Counterplan. Court Das

Executive action. - Executive power. - Political Capital - Elections

Courts Counterplan. Politics (PC/Elections)

Private sector.

*Private companies keep collected information, government needs a warrant to get*Limit Executive Order 12333

Advantage Counterplans

Soft power. Shut-down Gitmo

Economy boosters. Soft power. Education improvements

Net-benefits are usually Politics

*Private companies keep collected information, government needs a warrant to get*Limit Executive Order 12333

Reforms

Limit, don’t abolish

Different “Affirmative” plan

*Private companies keep collected information, government needs a warrant to get*Limit Executive Order 12333

Process

Privacy & Civil Liberties Oversight Board

Commissions?

What’s wrong with the Affirmative’s Approach?

Kritiks

*Private companies keep collected information, government needs a warrant to get*Limit Executive Order 12333

Kritks

The Law is bad. It’s indeterminant (CLS). It’s racist (operates to the disadvantage of minorities). Rights alienate.

Feminism. Protecting the private sphere operates to the disadvantage of women.

Capitalism. Prop-up the economy. Undermine resistance.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS3

Conclusion

Surveillance threatens rights and minorities.

Security concerns (links) are real but difficult to defend and impacts easily kritiked

Some cases outside the privacy/security box

Negative state action vs. change will be important