A Secret Court to Monitor Wiretapping

The New York Times is reporting that a secret court, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, will monitor wiretapping of conversations between individuals in the United States and individuals outside the U.S. when one is expected of being a terrorist.

Lesson Ideas:
1. Ask students if the United States government should have the right to eavesdrop on individuals. Under what conditions should they be allowed to do so.
2. Tell students to imagine that they are the telephone matrix in the United States and are privy to hear all of the telephone conversations that take place in the U.S. What kinds of things might they hear?
3. If it could be proven that no more terrorist activities would ever take place if everybody in the world stopped using the telephone system and Internet communication would it be worthwhile to abolish these communication systems? Why/why not? (Encourage your students to argue both sides.)