Overview

To defend its citizens from harm, must the government have unfettered access to all information? Or, must personal privacy be defended at all costs from the encroachment of a surveillance state? And, doesn’t the Constitution already protect us from such intrusions? When the topic of discussion is intelligence-gathering, privacy, or Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure, the result is usually more heat than light. Anthony Gregory challenges such simplifications, offering a nuanced history and analysis of these difficult issues. He highlights the complexity of the relationship between the gathering of intelligence for national security and countervailing efforts to safeguard individual privacy. The Fourth Amendment prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures offers no panacea, he finds, in combating assaults on privacy—whether by the NSA, the FBI, local police, or more mundane administrative agencies. Given the growth of technology, together with the ambiguities and practical problems of enforcing the Fourth Amendment, advocates for privacy protections need to work on multiple policy fronts.

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9780299308803

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American Surveillance is an accurate and insightful examination of the delicate balance between the requirements of national security and the Constitution an issue more critically important than ever in an unsettled time of threats to America from without and within. Ernest W. Volkman, author (with Blaine Baggett) of Secret Intelligence: The Inside Story of America s Espionage Empire

A cogent synthesis of the history of American surveillance and of its conflict with the right to privacy enshrined in the federal Constitution. Thoroughly researched and eloquent, American Surveillance traces government surveillance from colonial times to beyond 9/11. William J. Cuddihy, author of The Fourth Amendment

Author Information

Anthony Gregory is the author of The Power of Habeas Corpus in America: From the King's Prerogative to the War on Terror, winner of the PROSE Book Award for legal studies. He is a fellow of the Independent Institute in Oakland, California.

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