2. BrandonRobinson
POLS- 3300-002
May 6, 2014
The Texas Tech Department of Political Science conducted a short research survey about
issues facing Texas. This survey had many questions, but I will be focusing on a select few
giving the results of the questions and explaining what they mean. For my research I will be
focusing on gender, political party, and whether people believe the National Security Agency
(NSA) is necessary to fight terrorism or has gone too far in violating peoples’ rights. I will split
the respondents by gender and then explain how Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and
others answered the NSA question. The main point of my study will be to research this due
process issue by looking at public opinion in Texas and by analyzing court cases that gave the
NSA the ability to collect everyone’s telephone records, as well as information on the date and
location of your phone calls, and cases that are current and address the due process rights of
American citizens. I will also be looking to find the answer to several questions: Within the male
and female populous do certain parties favor the NSA and the taking away of certain due process
rights? Do the respondents favor the NSA or does the majority believe that they have gone too
far in violating peoples’ rights? Does gender play a role in favoring a side in the NSA debate?
When it comes to the male respondents the majority, or fifty seven percent, of all of the
males answered that the NSA has gone too far in violating peoples’ privacy rights. Breaking it
down into party, fifty five percent of the Republicans answered that the NSA has gone too far.
The Democratic male respondents were basically split down the middle between believing the
NSA was necessary and that it has gone too far. The Independents majority containing fifty eight
percent answered that the NSA is violating citizens’ due process right to privacy. Lastly, sixty
seven percent of male respondents who were in some other party, answered that the NSA has
gone too far. This shows that Democratic males from Texas were the only party where the
majority did not think the NSA is violating privacy rights. When it comes to the female
respondents the majority, or fifty six percent, of all of the females answered that they believe the
NSA program goes too far in violating peoples’ privacy rights. Breaking it down into party, fifty
seven percent of Republicans, sixty one percent of Independents, and seventy one percent of
female respondents who identify with some other party all answered that the NSA has gone too
3. BrandonRobinson
POLS- 3300-002
May 6, 2014
far. But once again, the Democratic Party is split. Looking at this data some of the questions can
be answered; this data shows us that the majority of Texans both male and female believe the
NSA has gone too far in violating peoples’ due process right of privacy. Also, the majority of
parties believe this as well, except for the Democrats who are practically split in the middle with
half of the respondents who identify with that party saying that the NSA’s collection of
everyone’s telephone records, as well as information on the date and location of your phone calls
is necessary to fight terrorism. Looking at both male and female respondents separately, the only
distinction is that the women are slightly more inclined in each party to believe that the NSA has
gone too far, but the bottom line of these results is that it shows that the majority of Texas
citizens do not agree with what the NSA is doing. This shows that there is some controversy on
the NSA topic, so let’s look at some of the court cases giving the NSA the ability to do what it
does and current cases that are challenging the NSA.
For my research I will look at three court cases, Smith v. Maryland, which is the
backbone case for the NSA, American Civil Liberties Union v. James R. Clapper, and Klayman
v. Obama to show the court’s opinion of what the NSA does. The court decision in Smith v.
Maryland (1979) is the center stone of The NSA’s data gathering because the Supreme Court’s
holding in this case is that the individual does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
What this does is allow the government to get information from the “third party” telephone
companies without the individual’s permission or without informing them that the data will be
taken. This case, which started with a single incident that made legal the installation of a pen
register to stop a man from harassing a woman, to now be construed to allow the government to
basically have pen registers on every single person, innocent or not, at all times. The second two
cases that I will be discussing are current cases that are working their way up to the Supreme
Court. The first case ACLU v. Clapper, which involved an organization trying to sue the
government for getting information on them through the telephone company they subscribe to.
This case is dismissed based on its standing, the government by way of sovereign immunity has
precluded suits by the subscribers of the telephone companies; the only way the government
could get sued for this is if it was by one of the telephone companies that the government was
requesting data from. This case also goes into the merits of the case and rules that even if the
4. BrandonRobinson
POLS- 3300-002
May 6, 2014
statutory claim were not precluded, it would fail. It then states that in order to win on the merits
the plaintiff would have to establish that he is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of
preliminary relief, that the balance of equities tips in his favor, and that an injunction is in the
public interest. It also states that because there is no sufficient fear there is no violation of the
first amendment and because of Smith v. Maryland the NSA’s data collection program does not
violate the fourth amendment. Now to the final case Klayman v. Obama, the holding in this case
is very important because it holds, through the necessary order listed in the previous case, that
the NSA’s data collection program violates the fourth amendment and that subscribers do have
standing because the government “may not hang a cloak of secrecy over the constitution,” plus
the thirty-four year old Supreme Court precedent from Smith v. Maryland is made irrelevant.
These NSA’s ability to collect data is a very important due process issue because of the
limits it would put on our rights. As of right now the government is allowed to make
“warrantless” searches on private information. This has been precedent for a long period of time,
mostly likely due to the fact that during the time of Smith the capabilities of information
gathering was not nearly as advanced and because the American population has been in the dark,
but with the new important information leaked by Edward Snowden the public became aware of
what the NSA has been doing. Before this happened, a case similar to the ACLU and the
Klayman case was denied on the grounds that the harm of the NSA was speculation, but as
shown by Klayman, this issue is important and is harmful to American citizens. This harm has
obviously taken root in peoples’ minds because the majority of the respondents in the poll
believe that the NSA has gone too far; through each of the parties listed there is a significant
amount to say that this issue is believed to be a problem by all the parties. I also believe that
Texas public opinion does coincide with the courts, which have recently agreed with the majority
of Texans that the NSA has gone too far, but also around thirty seven percent of the respondents
believe that it is necessary to fight terrorism. The courts of the United States seem to have
different opinions over this issue as do the citizens of Texas.
