Wendy McElroy: Due process versus secret courts

  Due process is a set of legal requirements that protect the individual against abuse by the state. Examples are a person’s right to be notified of court proceedings in which he is involved and the right against self-incrimination. Due process is woven into the fabric of American society through both the Constitution and legal precedent.

  Few practices are as damaging to due process as secret courts and secret law. From the abuses of the Spanish Inquisition to the English Star Chamber, historians have detailed how individual rights decline as state secrecy rises. This relationship can be explained in various ways. One of them is with reference to knowledge and power.

James Jay Carafano: PRISM is essential to U.S. security in War Against Terrorism

  "Our intelligence professionals must be able to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they're planning," said the president. "The lives of countless Americans depend on our ability to monitor these communications."

  He added that he would cancel his planned trip to Africa unless assured Congress would support the counterterrorism surveillance program.

Jacob G. Hornberger: Secrecy versus a free society

  A Texas company named Lavabit exemplifies everything that the national-security state has done to our nation. Lavabit is an Internet company that provides encrypted email service for its customers. It recently announced that it was voluntarily shutting down its business rather than capitulate to the demands of the NSA and its FISA Court to grant access to its customers’ communications.

Cameron Smith: Government data grab: Privacy and the PRISM

  Last week The Guardian released a classified order from the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) requiring Verizon to hand over a massive amount of information about their phone customers. According to Senator Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), the PRISM program used to sweep up massive amounts of information has been in operation since 2007.

  Subsequently The Washington Post released a classified slide show about the PRISM program which identified major participant companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple.