As famously expressed by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address, the American government is “of the people, by the people, for the people”. In accordance with this viewpoint, the government serves the needs of the citizens based on the principals captured in the US Constitution and the Amendments. The Constitution thus functions as a foundation of the free society, restricting the executive and legislative branches of the government from encroaching on the rights of the American citizens. The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution limits the powers of the federal government by stating that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the …show more content…
Although this authority was granted in the wake of the terrorist attacks to address the immediate threats, the government quickly began expanding its reach and circumvented the long-standing ban on domestic surveillance. Acting under the new secret rules, the NSA successfully demanded cooperation from the US telecom providers to hand it call-detail records of millions of American citizens, aiming to create a comprehensive database of all calls made in the US [1]. Further, the agency relied on the readiness of major US corporations [2] to furnish it with real time access to the traffic flowing through the Internet backbone and even began cooperating with foreign intelligence services [3] to enhance mass monitoring of the Americans both in the US and abroad. These illicit activities were performed with neither judicial oversight nor a warrant, even though the Fourth Amendment requires one for the search and seizure of personal goods by the government authorities …show more content…
The first reports of the illegal and secretive NSA activities, published at the end of 2005 [9], were based on the evidence delivered by an AT&T Technician Mark Klein [10]. For the first time, the public became aware of the broad, unsupervised, and illegal monitoring program instituted by the government behind the scenes. These publications and subsequent lawsuits forced the administration to finally admit the existence of monitoring programs and start preparing legal basis for its continued operation. However, despite numerous lawsuits and repeated denials from the government, the mass surveillance programs continued to rapidly
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows the United States government to gather foreign intelligence information concerning persons located outside of the country that are, or are connected to, a potential threat against the nation. In addition to protecting national security, the communications data collected under Section 702 has been used for criminal prosecution in domestic court cases. Since it passed in 2008, scholars have raised questions over the act’s constitutionality, especially about its consistence with the Fourth Amendment which protects both US and non-US persons against unreasonable searches and seizures. These scholars argue that not all communications gathered under Section 702 meet the reasonableness requirement of the Fourth Amendment and should therefore not be used in criminal cases. However, Section 702 mainly conflicts with the Constitution only when the act is used inappropriately by agencies to investigate people residing within the US rather than for its intended purpose of gathering foreign intelligence.
Michal Searles Dr. M. Varela ENC1102 6 April 2018 The Address at Gettysburg The movie Remember the Titans is mostly known for its powerful scene that took place at the Gettysburg battleground. While at football camp, Coach Herman Boone takes his segregated football team for a run at 3 A.M., into the woods. Racial tensions were high among the teammates as things surrounding them began to integrate, including their school.
The wiretapping program is used to collect data that is transmitted on a network and allows the government to eavesdrop without a warrant. The use of this program is easy for the NSA to snoop and allows the government to eavesdrop without having to present a warrant. President George W. Bush had addressed this program as a crucial part to the National Security Agency, yet this announcement led to the wild growth of the NSA’s power. The NSA took advantage of the program and used it to spy on the conversations between foreign nationals, U.S. citizens, and international communications. However, curious of the program and questioning President Bush’s speech, a group from the U.S. senate decided to look into the situation.
Though many scholars, such as Seltzer, have noted the antislavery rhetoric purposed the same ideals of the Gettysburg Address (and one could argue, even more meritoriously), this did not mean that Black were looked as equals by the majority of the nation. Seltzer argues that, “By casting his [Wills] interpretation in terms of a narrative of origins, Wills exaggerates the originary force of Lincoln 's Address at the expense of an appreciation for the cultural work of popular groups who were themselves involved in a reevaluation of national ideals through an appeal to the Declaration of Independence long before Gettysburg” (Selzer 126). She then concludes; “Abolitionists were changing in the popular eye from extremists to patriots who tried to
President Lincoln gave a speech on his vision and the state of the country, when his audience was expecting something completely different. Since the Civil war was fought mostly because of slavery and politics, that’s what the people expected to hear about. Lincoln claims that each side had their reasons and each side tried to avoid war. However, war still occurred and everyone was waiting for it to end. The authors claims that the people want the war over so the nation can heal.
In order to describe the tone of the address I would use the words “hopeful mourning” because while Abraham Lincoln pays tribute to the men who have passed, he also describes how their sacrifice has helped our nation move towards freedom. He’s using their death as a propelling force in the war for the people. A great example of this is in paragraph two where it says, “We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live.” In his opening sentence Lincoln refers to our forefathers and their coming forth to America in order to establish a new nation.
Moreover, President George W. Bush created the Patriot Act which expanded the government’s surveillance powers of phone messages and emails. As a result, many Americans were troubled by the unlimited wiretaps and the collection of phone records. Overall, these federal organizations brought a sense of security and increased the power of the
Appreciatively, President Barak Obama renewed the law that was set to expire; “Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones” (Fflambeau). Though, opponents argue that roving wiretaps are an infringement of individual rights, proponents remain head strong that the expansion is a key element to intercept and prevent terrorism. On face value, like unwarranted searches with exceptions to the exclusionary rule, roving wiretaps remain lawful through “executive ordering”
NSA hides the fact that they are monitoring on US citizens without the warrant as they find some connection between the person monitored and some illegal activity to justify their monitoring. At first, after the 9/11, President George W. Bush started a program of mass monitoring of US communication. He had started it without FISA Court’s knowledge and when the population find out about this Congress had to create and enact the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 and inside was the crucial Section 702 that, by law, validates mass monitoring over the last 7 years. These communication monitoring systems rely on these two statutes: FISA Amendment Act of 2008 (Section 702) and Patriot Act (Section 215).
The Civil War divided the nation in 1865 with an estimated number of casualties of 620,000 people. The Gettysburg address was written to remember that the loss of the fallen soldiers. The Gettysburg address was an important document for the development of civil war. The Gettysburg Address showcased the injustices of slavery, the fight to save the union,and the struggle of freedom. The Civil War was a battle against slavery.
Jefferson believes “a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People” (Jefferson 2). In order to prevent tyranny, the government should be decentralized in its power, “to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form” (Jefferson 1). Jefferson’s idea of “organizing power” is based on dividing the government into sections, to create equality in power and a voice for the people. The government should act as an advocate for the people; “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it” (Jefferson 1). If the people see the government as unfair or corrupt they have the power to change it through the separation of powers.
There’s a question americans usually ask themselves, is the government trustable? Many citizens would answer no, many americans believe that the government is constantly watching them. The privacy of americans citizens is being violated by the gps trackers in our phones that the government can see and monitor, how the governments listens to our calls and how they store all our information. This is similar to the privacy violations explored in 1984 by showing how in 1984 Big Brother is constantly watching it’s citizens.
Gettysburg Address. There are some famous moments in the United States history. The revolutionary war was one of the biggest accomplishments and moments in our nation’s history, and also the attack at Pearl Harbor are just two of the biggest moments in United States history. There also been some very famous speeches and documents.
The Great Speech Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863 delivered one of the most iconic speeches in American History. His delivery infuses us with such raw power and emotions that poured out from the bottom of his heart will change the hearts and minds of Americans for ages to come. Abraham Lincoln did not just write one speech he made five different copies with different sentence structure and paragraph structure, to show how important the layout of the message and how it needed to be simple and to the point. Dissecting “The Gettysburg Address” we begin to understand Abraham Lincoln’s heart lies, he reminds everyone about our past and that we should honor those who fought for our freedom; he tells us “All men are created equal” only to show us what we need to work on as people in the present, he spreads hope for the future and encourages us to grow together
Abraham Lincoln in the speech, The Gettysburg Address, constructs a point of achieving a "just and lasting peace" between the North and South without retribution. Lincoln supports his assertion by justifying his beliefs of unity between the states. Lincoln's purpose is to influence the people to not allow what has been done to go to waste. He wants his audience to realize that this division will only persist if no one settles the current issues in society. Lincoln speaks in a sympathizing, determined tone to address the Americans who are mourning the loss of their loved ones and to the rest of Americans who he wants to see a change from.