Guardian or Big Brother?: The NSA Data Sweeps

Ongoing disclosures about the extent of NSA communication monitoring have sparked numerous headlines—and almost as many questions. Should an American care, for example, that the NSA may log the time and duration of a phone call he or she makes to a cousin in Boise or Bangalore? As we seek to balance national security and civil liberties, what should we fear most—continuation of the surveillance operations or their constriction? Is the data monitoring lawful? Should we have better oversight?

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PANELISTS:

• Steven G. Bradbury, Partner, Dechert LLP; Former Head of the Office of Legal Counsel, US Department of Justice
• Elizabeth Goitein, Co-Director, Liberty & National Security Program, Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law
• Shane Harris, Senior Writer, Foreign Policy; Author, The Watchers: The Rise of America’s Surveillance State (2010)

MODERATOR:

• Stephen Schulhofer, Robert B. McKay Professor of Law, New York University School of Law