Reference no: EM131631145
Write an essay and I really need help cause I'm behind. The book we use in my class is Rights, Liberties and Justice by Epstein and Walker.
The question is:
Assume that you are a lawyer in the Justice Department and you have been asked to advise the Attorney General on the following matter:
In June 2013, The Guardian, a British newspaper, published the first of what would be many stories detailing the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance program. The stories, based on thousands of documents stolen by former N.S.A. contractor Edward Snowden, have revealed extensive domestic data collection efforts, surveillance of foreign governments and heads of state, and several intelligence techniques and tradecraft details.
Snowden was indicted on charges of theft of government property and willful communication of classified material to an unauthorized person. American officials characterized the loss as the worst loss of classified information in history. N.S.A. Director James Clapper didn't limit the blame to Snowden, referring to the reporters he gave the information to as his "accomplices."
In February 2014, journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill founded a new online newspaper, The Intercept. The immediate mission of the new venture was to investigate and publish stories related to the disclosures of National Security Agency surveillance stemming from the documents Edward Snowden stole from N.S.A. computers.
The first article detailed the NSA's role in identifying targets for drone strikes. In short, the article revealed that many drone strikes are targeted based on "geolocating" the SIM card in terrorist suspect's cell phones. In the months that followed, The Intercept published more articles detailing the means by which the N.S.A. contributed to intelligence gathering and drone strikes against al-Qaeda affiliated groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. With each revelation, the criticism of American officials became more intense.
In May 2014 the Intercept published a story that provided technological details of how the N.S.A. supports special operations raids. Defense Department officials immediately denounced the story and claimed that it directly undermined an ongoing special ops mission along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Although it is now several years later, it is known that Snowden possesses more documents that haven't leaked, and especially in light of recent leaks regarding Russia, the Trump administration is looking to go after not only leakers but the press itself. The justice department is considering whether to file charges against Greenwald, Poitras and Scahill for publishing these documents.
The Attorney General has asked you to evaluate whether prosecuting the journalists would violate the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Based on some of the landmark free speech decisions that Supreme Court has made (which, quite luckily, coincide exactly with the cases we've talked about in class), you are to consult relevant tests / standards and come to a conclusion about when and under what circumstances speech that is seen as harmful to national security can be regulated.