Security vs. Civil Liberties

Security Vs. Civil Liberties
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Determine whether the government's overriding need to fight terrorism outweighs the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendment rights of the people within the United States.
The 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 14th amendments protect the civil liberties of US citizens. However, the fight against terrorism has led to other legislations and actions that violate these liberties, at least for some citizens. The US government should not use terrorism as a scapegoat to continue infringing the privacy of its people CITATION Mat07 \l 1033 (Robinson, 2007). Edward Snowden’s expose showed that the government was overstepping its constitutional provisions and using the tools it had developed to infringe on the people's privacy. The cure of a problem cannot be worse than the problem. Thus, the fight against terrorism cannot be worse than the effects of terrorism. Terrorists are fast-evolving, and the direction and spirit of the legislation are targeting the wrong group. For example, the known and declared terrorist groups in the US are the Taliban, Al Qaeda, ISIS, ISIL, among other groups majorly operating primarily in the Middle East, and they have not carried out majorly successful attacks on Americans. However, the programs continually collect data on its citizens. The inability of terrorist groups to carry out attacks on US soil is not because of the efficacy of the surveillance programs or the detention of suspected terrorists in Guantanamo, but because of the crippling of their infrastructure in their country. Thus, it begs the question of why the government is still collecting data on innocent individuals. Mass shooters have become the new terrorists and are emboldened by existing laws on gun ownership, and the surveillance programs are ineffective against this new form of terrorism.
Evaluate whether or not the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments apply to terrorists since the writers of the Constitution could not have envisioned mass shootings and suicide bombers.
The 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th amendments apply to all people, including terrorists. Whilst the framers of the constitutions may not have envisioned mass shooters and terrorism, the fundamental principles that led to the creation of the amendments were meant for all people. A person is innocent until proven guilty. It is better for a thousand criminals to be on the streets than for one innocent person behind bars. These fundamental principles informed the amendments and show that the constitution is for the people and not the government. Therefore, all the aforementioned amendments apply to terrorists if they are US citizens and should enjoy their protection. The due process of the law should be followed for trial and conviction of any suspect charged, even with the most egregious crimes. A threat to the justice system anywhere is a threa...