Government surveillance and human dignity

Following the horrific 9/11 attack in New York City we were feeling particularly vulnerable to the ongoing threats that were being issued about future attacks from the “outside.” We looked to our national defense to make us safe and by and large we have avoided those dangers from the outside and instead have experienced various attacks from the inside, from our own. We come to find out, and none of us are really surprised, that one of the weapons used in this policing for our protection is the surveillance of communications; as it seems, all communications. And something about this makes us squirm, as it should.

Whether we think of Snowden as a hero or a traitor, no matter his motives, he has opened up the discussion of this thing we refer to as our “right to privacy.” When we look to the foundational and primary documents upon which the United States was established, it is clear that natural law is the basis for the delineation of our fundamental human rights. St. Thomas Aquinas defines natural law as "nothing else than the rational creature's participation in the eternal law." I-II.94. In other words, these are rights and obligations given to us by our Creator as recognition due to the dignity of the human creature. Does it belong to our dignity that the communication between two parties, who have the reasonable expectation of privacy, be, in fact, private?

I have heard myself say that if anyone wants to pry into my private life, they are welcome to and they will find it altogether unexciting. I try to follow my mother’s advice to keep my words sweet and tender as I might find myself eating them at some point. However, there is something onerous and treacherous about my government being that interested in me and my activities. It certainly feels like an attack on my dignity, and if it feels that way, it is, indeed, an attack.

Yet, at the same time, I want to be safe and I want my government to be able to investigate those who plot against my safety. And this is the rub. Do I need to relinquish some part of my privacy in order to gain the degree of safety I wish for? And if so, how much? I understand that information is golden to those investigating criminal behavior and that those who plot evil deeds wish to cloak themselves within the secrecy of their private conversations. But need we abandon our precepts of probable cause and judicial supervision in order to gain efficiency in our prosecution of terrorism? I would hope not.

President Obama announced today that he will require intelligence agencies to obtain permission from a court before tapping into its vast trove of telephone data, but he will leave the data in the hands of the government for now. Let us pray for our leaders that they may become more sensitive to and protective of the God given dignity of each one of us.