Civil Rights and Liberties
Supreme Court Case 2

Douglas Ganim
Thursday, November 5, 2015
VOTE: 5-4 in favor of Sally Spyalot, Director of National Security Agency

JUSTICE ALITO delivered the opinion of the court Shortly after September 11, 2001, at the request of the National Security Agency, several of the major phone companies were asked to provide phone records for all calls made within the United States, and all calls made to the United States from other countries. The data the NSA received, provided information on the phone number the call was made to and from, the call’s duration, the date of the call, and the time of day. No Financial data, nor content of the calls, were ever obtained by NSA. This action proceeded without a warrant for any of the information provided. In addition, there was no individual suspicion since this was considered “meta-data” or “bulk data collection” of phone records. The vast majority of the data was analyzed by computer programs and never looked at by NSA personnel. Before we delve into an analysis of the court’s decision in this case, it is prudent we first address an important point. Prior to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, few American’s contemplated a threat to homeland security. Today, the fear of terrorism is ingrained in our daily thoughts. Following the events of 9/11, American’s sense of safety nearly vanished, and the direction, and scope of national security were forever changed. The National Security Administration (NSA), a key governmental counterterrorism agency, is responsible for ensuring national security. With this in mind, we believe that a reasonable person would consider the data obtained through these phone records to be of use to the NSA in stopping future terrorist attacks before they occur. Further, if the NSA were to obtain a warrant based on probable cause to wiretap a phone, the