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Law in Contemporary Society
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Paper TitleWhy not give the draft a title?-- By SarahShaikh - 23 Apr 2024 In my first semester of law school, I took the foundational course Constitutional Law. Much of the lengthy discussions we had went over my head after the exam, even the ones I had found interesting during class. One topic, the issue of emergency powers, also similarly was to me at the time. My professor and classmates went into long discourses about the history of emergency powers. We talked about the repercussions of disabling the president to invoke emergency and go beyond what the constitution permitted him to do. Yet, none of these comments particularly alarmed me. The topic of the American government, supposedly democratic, truly extending beyond its reach during a time of emergency did not worry me because I simply did not think of its implications. It simply felt like much of what law school is, a scholarly discussion. This was extremely foolish of me. As a visibly Muslim woman growing up in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, I have had my fair share of seemingly random and isolated encounters with the law. Supposedly random security checks at the airport, interrogations with law enforcement officials as a child, extra scrutiny in public and private locations were all normal to me. They seemed somewhat separate and unconnected from the law. At the time, I did not believe it was the law surveilling me. It was individuals who perhaps happened to be part of the law of this country. During the past year at this school, my beliefs began to change as I witnessed the mass surveillance of students first hand after protests broke out amongst the study body. What before was a simple swipe to ensure that students were the ones entering classrooms became a means of tracking where students were at all times. Logging into emails, notes for class stored on Google Drive, checking course details all required verification on my phone which logged my location. I never wondered where all this information was going. All of it felt like normal, basic security precautions. Yet, when swipe access was used to identify specific student protesters last year, I then began to understand the surveillance this school was implementing on its own students. As a Muslim, I felt singularly exposed to this form of surveillance. There were rumors of listening devices installed in Earl Hall in the prayer space for Muslims the previous year. Every time I neared the building, I felt as if university officials would be able to listen in on private conversations. I began to draw parallels to news articles and court cases that never truly persisted in my memory. FBI officials masquerading to surveil and incite threats in mosques. Programs of infiltrating student groups primarily made up of Muslims. These were all stories I had heard countless times. Yet, it was these experiences at Columbia that allowed me to draw the dots on my own between my experiences as a Muslim and surveillance and how this can only be facilitated through the law. The Patriot Act of 2001 was signed into law by President Bush a month after the terror attacks on 9/11. Despite arguably having the largest impact on our lives today, this Act was never brought up during our lengthy Con Law discussions on the need for our government to have emergency powers. The emergency and chaos of America facilitated the usage of emergency powers to implement an intrusive surveillance scheme primarily on Muslims in America, perhaps even violating the Equal Protection Clause. Yet, case after case that is brought forth in our judicial system does not reflect the racist usage of surveillance that violates basic rights of privacy. In fact, the case law legitimizes weaponizing this surveillance. The Iqbal case in Civ Pro, again another monumental case in the course, yet one that was only taught in the lens of the standard of pleadings. When I look back at this case, I now see a case that basically said racism against Muslims is justified. I need to do more research here and connect more cases. Yes, this draft is a good beginning. Improving it allows you to leave background behind and concentrate on what you want to learn, which is where this draft appropriately winds up. My course called "Computers, Privacy and the Constitution" is an offering you probably want to take (it will be offered Spring '25), and from which you can see why every Muslim household in the US would benefit from having my FreedomBox, and using other free tools to make freedom in the Internet society. You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines:
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