The Chilling of Religious Liberty in the Age of Digital Surveillance

COMMENT 535 practices, including demonstrating standing and a chilling of their rights under the Free Exercise Clause.Part V provides solutions and assesses where to go from here, with a particular focus on addressing surveillance in places that call themselves democracies.Part VI briefly concludes.II. HISTORY OF GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE OF UNDERREPRESENTED COMMUNITIES Understanding the history of government surveillance of Americans in the name of national security in the United States is important for a number of reasons.It helps explain the roots of such surveillance and the government's often repetitive justifications.Even more, it demonstrates how the cycle never ends.The victims may not all look the same, but the name of the game is the same.The following sections trace government surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Section A, and surveillance of Muslims following September 11, 2001, in Section B, as two examples where the government deployed its surveillance apparatus against unpopular or minority groups wrongly perceived as threats.The surveillance of King is particularly poignant because it demonstrates the religious undercurrents of his targeting beyond his status as a civil rights leader, but as a religious leader targeted in his place of worship.