From the Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart:In Defense of the Fourth Amendment

AT APPROXIMATELY 4:59 PM on Saturday, May 23, 2009, Leon Botstein, the President of Bard College, handed me a diploma and congratulated me as I walked across the stage at the College's 149th commencement. With that, I had completed by baccalaureate education, having successfully earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in American Studies.

The crowning achievement in my work towards that degree is my Senior Project, "In Defense of the Fourth Amendment: Ensuring U.S. National Security and Protecting the Citizens’ Right to Privacy in a World with International Terrorism." The final product is not all that it could be, but such projects never are. At some point, the author chooses to stop, not because the work is complete, but rather because, for whatever reason, he is satisfied with it. Indeed, while it is far from perfect, I am satisfied with this thesis and welcome you to read it. It is available here.

The thesis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Dept. of Mixed Emotions: The Case Against Warrantless Wiretapping

IT IS DONE. Today, I submitted my completed senior thesis to Bard College. Having submitted the work, I feel rather scattered. I'm relieved the work is done. I'm proud that I completed the work. I'm satisfied with its content. I'm disappointed that I didn't write more and that I didn't explore certain issues in greater depth. Overall, I don't know what to think of the finished product. And I'm uncertain how to deal with the void in my life that is the result of completing the work.

I very much need to regroup. In the interest of doing so, I will be making a conscious effort to avoid thinking about or discussing my thesis for the next week. I'll post a copy then. But, for the time being, I need to put some distance between myself and the project.

Dept. of Reasonable Expectations: The Case Against Warrantless Wiretapping, A Thesis

AFTER MANY CONVERSATIONS with my thesis advisor, a thesis "therapist" and writing consultant, and two close advisors, who, between them, share expertise in public policy and thesis development at the doctoral level, I have crafted a working thesis statement that will serve as a solid foundation for the balance of my work on this project:

In order to protect American citizens’ Fourth amendment protections against illegal search and seizure through warrantless wiretapping, statutory reforms should be implemented vis-à-vis the intelligence community to make it prohibitively difficult for the President of the United States to secretly engage in warrantless wiretapping.

Dept. of Unconscionable Mistakes:The Case Against Warrantless Wiretapping, Part I

WE HAD THE raw intelligence. The NSA had intercepted satellite phone conversations. NSA analysts knew two Saudi nationals were participating in the planning of a terrorist attack had strong links to Osama bin Laden. Through gathering its own intelligence, the CIA knew the men were en route to LAX. And when United Airlines 002 touched down in Los Angeles in early 2000, the men disappeared.

21 months later, on September 11, 2001, the men, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, would be two of 19 men to perpetrate the deadliest terrorist attack in history.

The response of the U.S. government to 9/11 has been vast in scope. In addition to a military response and the detention of suspected terrorists, President Bush authorized the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP), a wiretapping program run by the NSA that bypassed the existing legal framework to permit surveillance of nearly any individual, including American citizens, without a warrant.

Over the past five months, I have been working on my Senior thesis for my B.A. in American Studies from Bard College. In the thesis, I contend that President Bush's authorization of TSP constituted an illegal action. First, authorization of such a program provides for the violation of the Fourth Amendment, making the program unconstitutional. While unconstitutional Presidential actions have been tolerated during times of great crisis in the past, the current threat posed by terrorism does not constitute such a crisis. Second, Congress, through its passage of FISA in the 1970s, specifically forbade such warrantless wiretapping.

Over the coming weeks, I will use this blog as a place to offer my thoughts on the project as I develop my thesis. Hopefully, while serving as a repository for my musings, it might also serve as a testing ground for my ideas. I welcome any and all comments in response to my posts.