The Electronic Frontier Foundation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Electronic Frontier Foundation - Essay Example The Electronic Frontier Foundation The organization is a non-profit organization that relies upon donations for their existence. One of the major areas that EFF attends to is privacy rights. In 2008, the EFF challenged the NSA policy of wiretapping, suing the NSA to end the surveillance of Americans and hold the government officials accountable who pursue these measures. The two cases that they brought were Jewel v. NSA and Hepting v. AT&T. These cases involved a lawsuit against the NSA for directly conducting surveillance on ordinary Americans. Hepting v. AT&T involved a lawsuit against the telecommunications giant because it was helping the government in surveillance measures. These cases were dismissed due to governmental immunity, and is currently on appeal in the 9th Circuit (eff.org). The EFF has also argued in a Senate Judiciary Committee that warrantless searches of individuals’ laptops and other electronic devices are not considered to be a routine search, despite the fact that the Supreme Court found that border guards can conduct a routine search of people who are crossing the border. These are searches that can be conducted without a warrant or either a reasonable suspicion of any criminal wrongdoing. They also testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee that taking data from an individual’s laptop or other electronic device should be considered to be a seizure under the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of searches and seizures (eff.org). Additionally, the EFF has urged the senate to put more oversight on border guards. EFF has also argued, successfully, in a Pennsylvania court that the information stored by cell phone providers as to the location of an individual is protected by the Fourth Amendment, therefore the government has to have a warrant based upon probable cause in order to obtain theses records. The government appealed this decision to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and this is currently being considered by this Court (eff.org). The EFF al so has worked to protect e-mail privacy, stating that the Department of Justice’s policy of requiring an e-mail provider to save prospective e-mails with only a subpoena and a court order not based upon probable cause is illegal, as the government needs to, under the Fourth Amendment, obtain a search warrant based upon probable cause, and this warrant needs to describe exactly what it is that the government is trying to obtain. In this case, the EFF filed an amicus brief in the case, as the case was brought by Steven Warshak (eff.org). The EFF also has helped consumers by helping them get proactive. The way that they do this is by publishing an on-line guide for consumers that helps them understand what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to on-line and electronic issues. This is called Surveillance Self-Defense (SSD). In particular, this organization helps educate consumers about government spying on computers, as well as data that is obtained through electronic mean s such as cell phones, and communications stored by third parties (eff.org). Moreover, the EFF also has launched a program to aid people in foreign lands about their rights regarding privacy concerns (eff.org). Free speech is another broad issue that the EFF. They have resisted the misuse of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA gives providers immunity when they take down content, while not providing for a way to resist this. The EFF notes that there is a

Why does America have a two-party system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Why does America have a two-party system - Essay Example The classification of the party system is on the grounds of the number of relevant parties and the amount of fragmentation that is seen in the governing bodies (McKeever and Davies 2012). A two-party system is seen where two major political parties are at the time dominating the votes. Within the two-party system, one of the parties gets to hold the majority in the legislation (Bailey et al 2010). The United States is noted to have started the system of having two parties in its governance. There are many reasons as to why it does continue to have its system like that (McKeever and Davies 2012). When the history of the United States is considered, it is found out that its roots are based on the two-party system itself. This force behind the form of tradition, where that the state itself began with, has become very important to the Americans. It has had a lot of influence on the American government (Gerring 2001). Other nations have numerous political parties whereby the candidates ge t to be elected to the offices, and when the data is analyzed, minority parties give out great contribution to this. Over the course of political history in the United States, minor third parties have come up several times (Bibby and Maisel 2003). For example, the Poor Man’s party, the liberty party, and the free soil party have come up within the American history and get to influence the politics of America slightly. But, the worst part is that the names of most of them get forgotten easily and very quickly (Bibby and Maisel 2003). Two-party system is the only system where the county gets to have ideological parties with broad political beliefs and good values that can see the country forward to a better stand (Herrnson and  Green 2002). The minor parties only tend to be economic protests, and this is not what the nation needs at the moment (Campbell 2006). It needs to see progress from one stage to another in terms of a better solution to the problems and matters they are facing (Bibby and Maisel 2003). The minor parties do act as splinter parties in most situations. This paper is going to analyze the reasons why United States of America still has two party systems. Historical influence When the past political system is reviewed, the progressive party of 1912 splinted from the republicans gaining 88 electoral votes. Later on the same progressive party of 1924 gained 13 votes after splinting from the republicans (McSweene and Zvesper 1991). These groups always do not take up the goal of winning the election and transforming the nation, but conversely, they concentrate on changing the view of the current state of the electoral votes (Bowles 1993). One of the major reason as to why United States of America still continues to engage in the Two-party system is due to the reason of the great force of historical tradition (Sundquist 1983; Smith 2003). For a very long time, since the nation started with the Two-party system, the anti- federalists and the fe deralists have become used to the system so much that they cannot let go of it (Milkis and Rhodes 2007). When this system is trace, it is found that there have been five distinct party systems. These are: first party system, which was during 1796 to 1816: federalists and Jeffersonian republicans; second party system, which was during 1840 to 1896: democrats and Whigs; third party system, which was during 1860 to 1896; democrats and republicans; the fourth party system occurred during 1896 to 1932: republicans and democrats, and finally the fifth party system includes the democrats and the republicans: from 1932 to date (Sartori and  Mair 2005). American political Beliefs and Values One of the other factors which have greatly inclined the two party