American Government: Case Study on Privacy, Public Safety, and the Law

This report delves into the crucial issue of privacy rights within the framework of American government, focusing on the balance between individual liberties and public safety. It begins by establishing the historical context of privacy rights, noting that while the U.S. Constitution doesn't explicitly mention a right to privacy, various amendments, particularly the Fourth and Fifth, offer protections against unreasonable searches and the misuse of personal information. The report then examines the Carpenter vs. United States case, a landmark decision concerning the privacy of historical location records obtained from mobile phones. The FBI acquired cell-site location information (CSLI) of a suspect without a warrant, leading to a Supreme Court ruling that the government's actions violated the Fourth Amendment. The report concludes that while the government can acquire personal information for national security and public safety, it must obtain a search warrant first. The paper emphasizes the importance of civil liberties and the role of politicians in protecting these rights, underscoring the need for a balance between public safety and individual privacy.

Running head: AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
American Government
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors Note

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Introduction
The right to privacy is considered to be an essential component of several legal traditions
the aim of which is to prohibit government and private actions that threaten the privacy of
individuals. This paper mainly focuses on analyzing a case involving public safety and privacy
of individuals. This paper also aims to answer some questions related to the case.
Discussion
Almost 150 national Constitutions mentioned right to privacy. However, right to privacy
is not mentioned in the Constitution of the U.S. clearly. Various constitutional amendments
provide certain protections under the U.S. Constitutions. Such as, The Fourth and The Fifth
Amendment protects individual’s privacy against unreasonable searches and privacy of personal
information respectively. Apart from that certain statutory law helps to protect the right to
privacy, for instance Federal Trade Commission imposes the right to privacy in several privacy
statements and policies (Reidenberg, 2014). The right to privacy is referred to in the Fourth
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, according to which the right of the individuals must be safe
in their families, papers and effects, against irrational examinations and confiscations. Right to
privacy must not not be infringed, and warrants must not be delivered, unless there exists
probable grounds for doing so reinforced by jurisdiction. In this way the U.S. Constitution tries
to protect the right to privacy (Clement, Schwarzfeld & Thompson, 2011).
Presently, in the era of technological development several wide and variety of functions
are performed by the mobile phones. Mobiles phones attaches to a set of radio antennas
continuously which is known as ‘cell sites’. Whenever a phone attaches to a cell site, a time-
stamped record is generated, which is known as ‘cell-site location information or CSLI (Schilit,

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Hong & Gruteser, 2003). This information are collected and stored by several wireless carriers
for their personal and business purposes. Carpenter vs. United States [2018] 16-402, 585 U.S. is
considered to be a landmark case regarding the privacy of historical location records tracked
from mobile phones. In this case, various cell phone numbers of robbery suspects have identified
by the FBI. Directions have been given by the courts to the prosecutors for acquiring the mobile
phone records of all the suspects under the provisions of Store Communications Act. CSLI has
produced by wireless carriers for the mobile phone belonged to Timothy Carpenter and by doing
this the U.S. government successfully obtained 12898 location point arising out of the movement
of Carpenter in last 127 days. A petition was made by Carpenter for suppressing the information.
It was held by the Supreme Court that the U.S. government has violated the Fourth
Constitutional Amendment provisions by acquiring the historical location record from a mobile
phone without issuing a search warrant.
The decision held by the majority is appropriate in this case. It is the duty of the
government to maintain the privacy of the individuals. It is a proven fact that civil liberties
protect the individuals from governmental actions. Civil rights and liberties are not affected by
historical thought and tradition. The reason behind it is that, the government take all the
necessary steps to maintain the rights of the citizens and protect them from any harmful decision.
Many authors are of the view that politicians play an active role in protecting the civil rights of
the citizens by forcing the government to make policies in this regard (Simbro, 2010). Whoever
violates the constitutional rights of a citizen must be punished accordingly either with
imprisonment or with fine or with both. The person whose constitutional rights have been
violated must get compensation from the wrongdoer in the monetary form.

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Conclusion
Therefore from the above discussion it can be concluded that the government can acquire
personal information of a citizen for the purposes of national security and public safety but that
must be done after issuing a search warrant.

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Reference
Clement, M., Schwarzfeld, M., & Thompson, M. (2011). The national summit on justice
reinvestment and public safety: Addressing recidivism, crime, and corrections spending.
Justice Center, the Council of State Governments.
Reidenberg, J. R. (2014). Privacy in public. U. Miami L. Rev., 69, 141.
Schilit, B., Hong, J., & Gruteser, M. (2003). Wireless location privacy
protection. Computer, 36(12), 135-137.
Simbro, E. M. (2010). Disclosing stored communication data to fight crime: The US and EU
approaches to balancing competing privacy and security interests. Cornell Int'l LJ, 43,
585.