2015-16 Policy Resolution

Advantages,
Plans, Das, Ks,
Counterplans
Strategic
Considerations
We have features for every step of the way

RESOLVED: THE UNITED STATES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
SHOULD SUBSTANTIALLY CURTAIL ITS DOMESTIC
SURVEILLANCE.
Resolution

Grew out issue brought to light by three individuals
Edward Snowden
Glenn Greenwald
Lauria Poitras

Edward Snowden
Snowden primarily concerned about federal mass surveillance and mass counter-terror surveillance conducted through electronic means
International implications excluded but some international surveillance is domestic
A lot of the topic will fall outside of this immediate controversy – immigration, Muslim communities, war on drugs, welfare
Topic intersects a lot of interesting areas – racism, privacy and other rights, terrorism, security. Security v. Liberty/personal freedom
Lots of good Affirmative cases, most popular probably not in core topic area
Glenn Greenwald

Federal government. Central government in D.C. Three branches.
Surveillance. To keep close watch over someone or something.
Physical observation, interception of personal communications, the use of undercover agents, subpoenaing records, audio and video recordings, and the collection of banking and other personal information.
Mass vs. targeted. What standards govern targeted surveillance? Should those standards apply to mass surveillance?
Surveillance conducted for reasons other than crime control – public health, welfare monitoring. Should the topic be limited to people?
Curtail “to reduce in extent or quantity; impose a restriction on” (Google
Definitions).
“To impose a restriction on” creates more Negative ground.

Its. “of or relating to itself especially as possessor, agent, or object of an action”
Two ways to access state programs
(a) Court action
(b) Joint programs

The report also filled in a gap about the evolving legality of the warrantless wiretapping program…to direct the N.S.A. to collect Americans’ international phone calls and emails, from network locations on domestic soil, without the individual warrants required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or
FISA…. Judge Vinson’s resistance led Congress to enact, in August 2007, the
Protect America Act, a temporary law permitting warrantless surveillance of
foreigners from domestic network locations[3].
Charlie Savage, January 11, 2015, “F.B.I. is Broadening Its Surveillance Role, Report
Shows, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/12/us/politics/beyond-nsa-fbi-is-assuming-alarger-surveillance-role-report-shows.html?_r=0 DOA: 1-12-15

Advantages, Plans, Disadvantages, Kritiks, Counterplans

Strong Advantages to Choose from
Privacy. “Core” advantage.
Right to be left alone, secure in one’s person, have information about oneself kept secret, right to be free from interference, right to association right to personal decisions.
Griswold v. Ct: 1 st , 3 rd , 4 th , 5 th , 9 th amendments
Privacy Act of 1974. E-Government Act of
2002.
Mosaic theory
Tyranny. Threatens association, creates dominance of the government
(discrimination, coercion. Not far-fetched – government abused power in the past.

Strong Advantages to Choose from
Freedom of Expression.
Racism
Muslim leaders under mass surveillance
Informant programs in Muslim communities
Local/state police surveillance programs in Black and Hispanic communities (Mass, targeted)
Surveillance of (illegal) immigrants
Orioles Executive Vice President John Angelos, son of majority owner Peter Angelos,

Strong Advantages to Choose from
Internet freedom. Global impacts
Economy.
Internet fracturing.
Executive power abuse.
Hegemony. Soft power. Economic power/technological power. Hard power.
Infopolitics
Biopolitics. Biopower is the power of the state over individuals that is achieved through the regulation of every day life
Public health surveillance
Welfare surveillance
Drug testing
Biometric surveillance

Strong Advantages to Choose from
Securitization/Threat Construction.

• 9-11 attacks created the impetus and legal changes that make mass surveillance possible
• CIA, NSA, DIA couldn’t share information with
FBI because of FISA.
• FISA passed in the 1970s because Nixon was using intelligence services to spy on political opponents. FISC was also created to check any use of foreign intelligence.
• Post 9-11 FISA amended to Uniting and
Strengthening America by Providing
• Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and
Obstruct Terrorism (PATRIOT) Act.
. --- Section 215 enables meta data collection.
Query with FISC approval
• --- Section 505. National Security Letters.
Access customer records without probable cause
----Section 702. Collects contents about foreigners in a PRISM database. Sweeps up content of
Americans.
Executive Order 12333. Attorney General can use surveillance techniques as long as directed against a foreign power. Americans swept up. Usually collected by NSA’s MYSTIC and RETRO programs.

Simultaneous edits on one single document. No more waiting your turn or managing multiple versions.
There might be 1,000 proposals
Some evidence indicates 1,000 programs
*Incidental domestic information collected for foreign intelligence can’t be used
*Limit the length of data retention from public sources
*No cross-sharing between intelligence and law enforcement
*Intelligence Inspector General
*Privacy & Liberties Oversight Board
*Can’t search contents without a warrant

*Private companies keep collected information, government needs a warrant to get
*Limit Executive Order 12333

*Immigration – high tech surveillance on the border;
*War on drugs
*Muslim Communities

*Stronger privacy standard/definition that incorporates privacy rights
*Limit on total amount of data collected and length of storage
*Can’t use any surveillance without a warrant, exclusionary rule would apply
*Use of DNA data (collected at state & local levels, shared at federal level
*No geolocation tracking without a warrant
*Drone limits

For example, in Maryland v. King, the Supreme Court held that the collection of DNA samples upon arrest, a practice used by federal and state law enforcement, was constitutional.
Twenty-eight other states and the federal government have also enacted statutes authorizing or
mandating the collection of DNA from individuals upon arrest. n4 The United States Supreme
Court examined the constitutionality of this group of statutes under the Fourth Amendment n5 in
Maryland v. King. n6 The Court found that the policy instituted by the Maryland statute did not violate the protections of the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures, holding that: When officers make an arrest supported by probable cause to hold for a serious offense and they bring the suspect to the station to be detained in custody, taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee’s DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police
booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. (Rachel Cox, 2015, Rachel
Cox is a 2014 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, American Criminal Law review,
Unethical Intrusion: The Disproportionate Impact of Law Enforcement DNA Sampling on Minority
Populations, http://www.americancriminallawreview.com/files/2014/1654/8722/Unethical_Intrusion.pdf, p. 155)

*Disease surveillance
*Surveillance of those on welfare
-- Welfare as surveillance
Arun Kundnani and Deepa Kumar, March 2015, Race Surveillance and Empire, Kundani is a Professor
@ NYU, Kumar is a journalist, http://www.kundnani.org/2015/03/21/race-surveillance-and-empire-2/
DOA: 3-28-15
With the transformation of the welfare state into a security state, its embedding in everyday life was not undone but diverted to different purposes. Social services were reorganized into instruments of
surveillance. Public aid became increasingly conditional on upholding certain behavioral norms that were to be measured and supervised by the state, implying its increasing intrusion into the lives of the poor—culminating in the “workfare” regimes
of the Clinton administration. 50 In this context, a
new model of crime control came into being.

Core Disadvantages
Presidential Politics/Political Capital.
*Private companies keep collected Elections information, government needs a warrant to get
Terrorism
*Limit Executive Order 12333
Executive Authority/Power
Federalism
Impact-turn disadvantages. Soft power bad.
Hegemony bad. Economic growth bad.

Court Disadvantages
Court Politics
Court Activism/Minimalism information, government needs a warrant to
Case & Controversy get

Agent Counterplans
States – Legislatures. Constitutional
Amendment. Courts.
-- Politics (PC/Elections) or Court Das. information, government needs a warrant to
Congress Counterplan. Court Das get
- Executive power.
- Political Capital
- Elections
Courts Counterplan. Politics (PC/Elections)
Private sector.

Advantage Counterplans
Soft power. Shut-down Gitmo
Economy boosters. Soft power. Education improvements
*Private companies keep collected get
*Limit Executive Order 12333

Reforms
Limit, don’t abolish
Different “Affirmative” plan
*Private companies keep collected information, government needs a warrant to get
*Limit Executive Order 12333

Process
Privacy & Civil Liberties Oversight Board
Commissions?
*Private companies keep collected information, government needs a warrant to get
*Limit Executive Order 12333

Kritks
The Law is bad. It’s indeterminant (CLS). It’s racist (operates to the disadvantage of minorities). Rights alienate.
get
*Limit Executive Order 12333 resistance.

3

Conclusion
Surveillance threatens rights and minorities.
Security concerns (links) are real but difficult to defend and impacts easily kritiked
Some cases outside the privacy/security box
Negative state action vs. change will be important