From the time the Jews in the Midbar arranged the doors of their tents to insure privacy thus bringing the Shechinah down among them the respect for privacy has been a Jewish value. Nearly a thousand years ago Rabbeinu Gershom issued a cherem prohibiting Jews from reading other people’s letters and other writings without permission. Now that very sort of invasion of privacy has become one of the most talked-about legal questions in theUSin years. The reason for this of course is the revelation that theUSgovernment has been collecting information about just about everyone in this country.
The National Security Agency (NSA) has acknowledged that for years it has routinely collected not only information revealing who has called whom on the telephone but is now scanning almost every e-mail sent in or out of the US. Although it copies all these -emails the NSA retains only those containing key words “just in case” — i.e. for future investigation anti-terrorism efforts or for whatever other purpose the government deems itself trustworthy to make use of them.
This practice raises serious questions under the US Constitution’s Bill of Rights which prohibits various types of intrusion by the government into the lives of individuals. One of these prohibitions is the Fourth Amendment which bars the government from conducting searches and seizures of the personal effects of citizens without a warrant — and both the blanket monitoring and scanning of e-mails and the recording of phone call data are being done without warrants.
Some civil libertarians also believe the practice violates the First Amendment’s free speech clause. This argument is based on Supreme Court opinions protecting anonymous expression and what has been termed the right of free association. If e-mail scanning makes people afraid to discuss their objections to government policy or to seek support from attorneys or civil rights groups this has the effect of chilling their speech. Critics of the NSA say this makes the practice constitutionally suspect.
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