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.
"This fascinating review of the shifts and accretions of American law
and culture is filled with historical surprises and twenty-first-century
shocks, so beneficial in an era of gross American ahistoricality and
cultural acquiescence to the technological state. Every flag-waving
patriot, every dissenter, every judge and police officer, every
small-town mayor and every president should read America Surveillance.
We have work to do!"-Lt. Col. Karen U. Kwiatkowski, (Ret.), former
Senior Operations Staff Officer, Office of the Director, National
Security Agency
