Terrorism

Terrorism is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives'. Depending on the origin, terrorism can be either international or domestic. Domestic terrorism originates within the United States. International terrorism relates to the unlawful acts of terrorists that violates the United States and any other state. Terrorists related activities are usually split up into two categories, incident and prevention. A terrorist incident relates to the violent act that endangers a person’s life. Terrorist prevention is when those violent acts are intercepted (stopped) due to suspicion and investigation.

“Supreme Court blocks challenge to anti-terrorism law” is a relatively new article (so new that it was published less than an hour ago) that I found very interesting because it relates to the prevention of terrorism. According to this article, On Tuesday, the United Stated Supreme Court ruled the 9/11 anti- terrorism maybe beyond normal judicial review.  In 2008 a similar very similar case was under review. In this case Lawyers, journalists, human rights activists and others believed that government's ability to intercept international communications was unconstitutional and that it violated the fourth amendment. What I found to be furthermore interesting about this case was that, the ability of the government's intelligence wasn’t being questioned, but the ability of the plaintiff’s to find out if they were even being intercepted was up for questioning. The plaintiff’s argument was that the fear of being heard made them conduct business in an abnormal way. The United Stated Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs did not have proper standing to challenge this law. Justice Samuel Alito called it "hypothetical future harm." when he announced the decision.

Surprisingly I agree with the court’s decision. I understand where the plaintiffs were coming from because I am a very private person, but I believe the government should have the right to prevent terrorism in any way they feel fit to do so. Terrorism is such important issue that unfortunately it puts America’s privacy rights at stake.