Surveillance and the sort of central question i want to think about today is can intelligence agencies operate in a Democratic Society and be successful at protecting the government and its citizens while also upholding those same Citizens Rights . Especially the right to dissent. In other words, are liberty and procurity compatible . No doubt, there is a need for intelligence communities to operate. Threats exist from foreign and domestic sources, those threats are real. They have been real throughout u. S. History and they can come from across the political spectrum. But for over a century, in addition to taking real threats to the lives of american citizens, bureaus and agencies within the United States government have surveilled those who have expressed what the Cato Institute described as, quote, Strong Political views that run count toer to the prevailing government paradigm. This challenges the notion by those who support a state of some sort if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. I want to come back to that later on. Maybe you will adhere to that view. Maybe you are kind of on the fence about it. Maybe you firmly reject it. Thats fine. Well have an opportunity to discuss that later, but the history of abuses in domestic surveillance in this country necessitates this discussion because the same tools that can be used to protect citizens from legitimate threats can be turned against the same citizens for less noble and even nefarious reasons. You really want to look at the sort of history of surveillance in the United States, you would go back probably about a century to 1908. Teddy roosevelts attorney general creates a special squad of investigators to work on behalf of the department of justice, becomes known as the bureau of investigation, and by the 1930s, the federal bureau of investigation, the fbi. The fbis own history, if you go on their website, they have a pretty long narrative description of their history, and they link the creation of an fbi to the Progressive Movement. That is really active in that period of time, at the turn of the century. The Progressive Movement, it is sort of the belief that the federal government must intervene to Foster Justice in an industrial society. The response to the sort of labor unrest that we talked about in previous classes and everything that went on that inspired that terrible kind of working conditions and so forth. So the Progressive Movement inspires things, for example, like the fda, to insure that the food youre getting has labels and what youre eating is what you think youre eating. It will eventually lead to things like child labor laws, but it will also then create this sort of nationwide Law Enforcement body that is able to keep tabs on criminals throughout the country that did not exist prior to this period in time. The fbis history explains again this creation based on the need for professional Law Enforcement agency in the face of labor conflict, a rise in Violent Crime and corruption, both in politics and big business, all of that accompanying urbanization and industrialization at the turn of the century, as well as National Security concerns. Particularly regarding an arkism with the fbi on its own description describes as the first modern day terrorist, as well as threats of war time subversion and espionage which we talked about the other week when we talked about free speech. In 1909, the fbi makes its first efforts to infiltrate political organizations beginning with the socialist party of america. By the mid1910s, theyre investigating antimilitarists and antienlistment groups. Over the years, the fbi will spy on a variety of organizations including the American Civil Liberties union, the evangelical American Council of churches, American Jewish congress, the nationwide labor federation, the National Association for the advancement of colored people, the Ethical Society of philadelphia, the new orleans womens center, the American Friends Service committee, a quaker social justice organization, the womens peace movement, led by jane adams, pro labor antiwar folk singers, et cetera, et cetera. Sometimes these people and organizations are investigated for decades. These are not violent revolutionary threats. But rather political dissidents who oppose certain aspects of government policy and perhaps even a particular form of government that we have. They do so through specific needs, ostensibly protected under the constitution, although as we noted in our class on free speech, not so much at the turn of the century when anarchists were strictly policed. Political spying will begin around 1908, 1909, and run to about 1924 and will stop for about a decade. The impetus to stop it is known as the first red scare. Immediately after the First World War comes to an end, the following year, 1919, sees a number of actions that will raise a lot of concerns about government surveillance. The seattle general strike in early part of 1919 shuts down that city, tens of thousands of workers go on strike across industries. In the spring of 1919, a bomb plot is broken up, and then theres a wave of bombings in the summer, anarchist bombings targeting prominent people, including the attorney general, alexander palmer. His house is right before you get to the main circle there, where r hits massachusetts. I realize at some point that was his house and i have been driving by it for years. Super weird. The bureau of investigation creates this thing called the radical division to sort of deal with this resurgence of anarchyi anarchyism, headed by j. Edgar hoover. It compiles files on roughly 200,000 individuals. Those files are used to round up several thousand suspected radicals in a series of raids that occur in at least 40 cities across the United States. Some of the people rounded up are well known prominent radicals, the anarchist emma goldman, other people are arrested simply because they appeared foreign or members of a labor union and so forth. Many of those arrests were held incommunicado for months, no access to lawyers, no access to their families and 249 resident aliens are put on a boat and deported to russia at the end of 1919 because of their alleged anarchist beliefs. Theres a tremendous political backlash against this, in particular, many of the civil groups who are rounded up are not engaged in radical violent behavior. Theyre instead political dissidents. Maybe they hold radical views, but nonetheless, they have not engaged in anything. And some of them are simply immigrants, immigrants from russia, immigrants from southern and eastern europe. So the political backlash against this brings the fbis political spying to a temporary halt. This is made especially palatable to those in power and may have been inclined to support this kind of roundup at first in part because of new immigration quotas put in place in 1924. They restrict immigrants from southern and central europe, totally shut down immigration from east asia, which well talk about next week in the context of talking about japanese american internment. 1929 sees the end of a tenyearlong intelligence Gathering Program run by an organization known as the black chamb bber could they have picked a more nefarious name. This is made up of people from the state department. The u. S. Telegraph kaems Like Western Union provided the black chamber with incoming and outgoing cable traffic. This is shut down by president hoovers incoming secretary of state, stimson opposes spying on the u. S. s diplomatic allies, not necessarily spying in general, but spying on the u. S. s diplomatic allies. Saying very famously, gentlemen dont read each others mail. Theres also a Supreme Court case at the end of the 20s that deals with wire tapping. And weighing whether or not tapping into someones phone conversation, you have to imagine this is early on in this period, where there are phones, does that violate the Fourth Amendment . Heres what the Fourth Amendment says. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizers shall not be violated and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. William howard taft, formerly president of the United States, then joins the Supreme Court. He speaks for the courts decision to basically rule against the notion that wire tapping violates the Fourth Amendment. The Court Essentially approves this and that approval will last for roughly 40 years. Heres what he says. Again, in favor of ruling in favor of wire taps claiming they dont violate the Fourth Amendment. Congress may, of course, protect the secrecy of telephone messages by making them, when intercepted, inadmissible in evidence in federal criminal trials by direct ledgeilation. If Congress Wants to rule on this, they can. But the courts may not adopt such a policy by attributing an enlarged and nuunusual meaning the Fourth Amendment. One who installs in his house a telephone instrument with connecting wires intends to project his voice to those quite outside and that the wires beyond his house and messages while passing over them are not within the protection of the Fourth Amendment. Those who intercepted the projected voices were not in the house of either party to the conversation, neither the cases we have cited nor any of the many federal decisions brought to our attention hold the Fourth Amendment to have been violated as against a defendant unless there has been an official search and seizure of his person or such a seizure of his papers or his tangible material effects or an actual physical invasion of his house for the purpose of making a seizure. A standard that would forbid the reception of evidence if obtained by anything other than nice ethical conduct by government officials would make society suffer and give crimi l criminals greater immunity that has been known heretofore. If youre using a telephone machine, it is connected to wires that go outside of,and speak to someone out oficide your home, and thus, someone tapping into the wires not really going into your house and searching your belongings, right . That is outside of your home. And thus, it does not fall under the auspices of the Fourth Amendment. This is how the court rules in 1928. I want to hit again on the last thing he says. Let me say it again. A standard which would forbid the reception of evidence if obtained by other than nice ethical conduct by government officials would make society suffer and give criminals greater immunity that has been known heretofore. Lewis brandeis, who in the 20s set the standard for free speech in his dissent that ultimately then became the courts ruling many decades down the road, he dissented in this case as well. Heres what he said in particular regarding those comments which are essentially right in some ways saying the ends justified the means. Heres what brandeis says. Decency, security, and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizens. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Lets try that again. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher for good or for ill. It teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for law. It invites every man to become a law unto himself. It invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law, the end justifies the means, to declare the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal would bring terrible retribution against this doctrine. Political spying ends from roughly the early 20s until 1936. When Franklin Roosevelt requests that it be resumed. Well see very clearly here, that government surveillance, it doesnt necessarily target one particular group. Historically, its targeted to lean left, not always. Franklin roosevelt, the great liberal democrat, requests that political spying be reinitiated in 1936. It will be led by our man up here, j. Edgar hoover, appointed head of the bureau of investigation in 1924, the age of 29. Younger than i am. Hoover had helped put together the list that had been used in the first red scare to round up a vast swath of people, but nonetheless, he managed to kind of escape the political fallout of that, the sort of blade came down on the heads of a few people higher up than him, and the bureau rebounded within that decade. Hoover had really tried to emphasize the bureaus role as a Crime Fighting organization, particularly in the 1930s when during the depression, you had some famous criminals that arrived, people like John Dillinger that the fbi put a lot of work into capturing. Hoover emphasizes this, knows how to work the media in his favor. The bureaus reputation rebounds. Fdr is concerned, though, concerned about soviet spies and concerned about fascists. This is the mid1930s. Fascism is on the rise in europe. There are several u. S. Based groups that emerge after hitlers rise to power mussolinis rise to power. Large enough they can hold a rally in Madison Square garden. Immediately after hitler invades poland, theyre directed to investigate all federal crimes but hoover also adds to that list subversive activities. It is unclear how much Franklin Roosevelt, how much his attorney general, people high up in the government, knew about the extent of what hoover would do. Theres no record of that particular meaning and what exactly was said in it. And roosevelt has bigger fish to fry in some sense. Not knowing whats coming down the road, he has an economic depression that continues to grind along. He will ultimately have the war to deal with, but even prior to the United States century, that is like a looming specter of a renewed war in europe, but theres no sense that fdr opposed hoovers intel work either. Hoover renews this, his renewal of investigative activities is authorized outside the courts. He discourages roosevelts administration from going to congress to get legislative approval because hes sure he wont get it. Congress had been very suspicious of the bureau of investigation being created in the first place, concerned about creating a secret state police force. Hoover warned that haters will twist the truth, so fdr proves political spying, the resumption of political spying without congress approval. Fdr supports hoovers suggestion to have every person in america fingerprinted. When the aclu complained about surveillance of passivist groups, groups that dont want to go to war in europe, trying to make sure the United States is not involved in anything about to happen there, fdr responds in writing that he sees nothing wrong with investigating groups that spread, quote, false information and engage in, quote, false teachings. Worth noting, his house had been bombed in 1919. That may have colored his views of political dissidents. Moreover, fdr has hoover look into political opponents as well. In particular, he has the fbi investigate several senators and several prominent public figures including charles linbdbergh, al of whom oppose any intervention in europe. Hoover learns from this experience he can curry favor and gain leverage by digging into any president s enemies, perceived enemies. He never blackmailed the kennedy brothers, but he does give Robert Kennedy, attorney general under his brothers presidency, monthly updates on all the people he knows, the acquisitions against him and family members. And on the one hand, right, perhaps this is helpful personal knowledge that Robert Kennedy could use however he sees fit. But it also insures that the kennedys know that hoover knows. Knows everything. Knows everything that everybody is doing. So the kennedys have the inclination to suddenly shut down what he might be doing, they will know in the back of their mind that hoover had tabs on anything they have been doing. The restoration of spying also takes place right in the context of emerging National Security state, one were familiar with today, right, when the Second World War ends, the cold war begins shortly thereafter. The house on American Activities Committee, which investigates suspected subversives and the federal governments massive Loyalty Program designed to snuff out anyone who might have dissenting political views, all of those rely on fbi reports. In 1956, the fbi goes on the offensive with a creation of cocointelpro, a Counter Intelligence program specifically designed to target the communist party of the United States of america.