An Open Letter to President Obama about Domestic Surveillance

I am writing to protest the NSA’s broad programs of domestic surveillance, and ask for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right of privacy.

I supported Mr. Obama in the 2008 and 2012 elections through campaign contributions, social media and writings on the Internet.  I now feel betrayed by Mr. Obama on the issue of privacy and domestic surveillance.

The right to privacy is a fundamental American freedom, recognized by multiple Supreme Court decisions.   The right to privacy has been recognized as implicit in the First, Third, Fourth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.  Nevertheless, these are not sufficient, and we need a new Amendment, specifically defining and protecting the right of privacy against intrusion by government and business.

Funding for the NSA data center in Utah was obtained through misleading testimony to Congress. Authority for domestic surveillance was given by secret decisions by a secret court. Democracy cannot function when the actions of the government are taken in secret.  Secret surveillance, the secret court, and misleading testimony to Congress give credence to those who say we cannot trust the government.

Our constitution was carefully constructed in order to provide checks on the powers of government and protection of individual freedoms. The Fourth Amendment is a particular embodiment of that restraint on government. A 1989 Supreme Court ruling made a narrow exception to the Fourth Amendment, and allowed wire-tapping on a case-by-case basis where a known security threat existed. The expansion of that ruling to perform comprehensive surveillance across the nation on the correspondence, reading and conversations of the citizenry is an outrage.

I believe that these powers of surveillance will be abused by future administrations, in ways small and large. History does not speak well of human nature, given the opportunity to use secret powers to perpetuate power. The NSA, with the permission of this administration, has built and institutionalized the apparatus for political repression in the United States.  Like the surveillance itself, the criteria to track or prosecute violators must also be secret, and the decision to prosecute is likewise secret, and beyond appeal.  At best, it resembles Vladimir Putin’s “managed democracy”.   At worst, it resembles the Stalinist terrors of the 1930’s.

I no longer feel free.  I cannot look at webpages or write an e-mail without thinking about how it might be misconstrued by a computer program or some government hack.  Under the current policies of NSA surveillance, I no longer live in a free country.

Shame.