Is the government watching you?

As ICE expands its use of surveillance across the country, concerns grow over potential violations of the Fourth Amendment.

“Is the government watching you?” was the title of the latest lecture in the VTSU Castleton “Teaching the Present Moment” series presented on March 5 by Criminal Justice professor Lisa Chalidze in Herrick Auditorium.

Chalidze opened her presentation with a monologue about Andrei Sakharov, Soviet physicist and nuclear scientist turned dissident and human rights activist.

Sakharov was secretly recorded and harassed at every opportunity by the KGB, including in the hospital after a failed hunger strike where he was stripped of his clothes with tubes forcibly shoved down his throat and up his nose.

“This is what government monitoring is, to secretly, in stealth, catch you in your lost venerable, unattractive moments, without your permission,” Chalidze said.

This was followed by a discussion of the Fourth Amendment, what she described as “just a few words, some of the most beautiful ever writing.”

The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from warrantless searches and seizures.

She proceeded to take the audience through a series of court cases related the Fourth Amendment and government surveillance inside the United States.

She talked about a suspected bookie recorded inside of a public phone booth, a suspected drug user recorded in his home with a thermal imager, a suspected drug dealer tracked using a GPS placed on his car, and another suspected drug user sniffed out by a drug sniffing dog outside of his house.

After describing each case, Chalidze asked the audience if the Fourth Amendment was violated, and in every case, she revealed that the courts ruled against the government.

She also spoke of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, another victim of Russian surveillance, who after surviving one Russian poisoning attempt, was fatally poisoned in a Russian prison.

She then tied the lecture to the present day, speaking of protesters being charged for revealing the identities of ICE agents, as well as videotaping protesters and running their faces through facial recognition software.

This time, after asking if this was a violation of the Fourth Amendment, she said, “the answer is, we don’t know yet…It is again technology, just like a phone booth, just like a GPS tracker, just like a thermal imager, and it takes the law a while to catch up with reality.”

Finally she ended with this.

“In the Soviet Union, primarily these techniques were used to crush or instill fear in political opponents. Is that where we are now? I don’t know that I have the answer but I hope that you will think about it,” she said.

During the QNA section, the audience asked an array of questions including whether the Fourth amendment applies to non-citizens, whether you’re obligated to provide a password for a seized phone, and about the difference between an administrative and a judicial warrant.

When one student asked for advice about expressing opinions that might put them at risk, Chalidze called on young people to be brave.

“If you are going to offer an opinion that is potentially threatening to someone, be willing to stand your ground…A wise man once said to me, life is great simplified once you decide what it is you’re willing to die for,” she said.

“The students that were here could really benefit from understanding how our social media platform can influence what’s going on, but also what that means for our own safety,” said senior global studies student Mackenzie Martin after the lecture.

Professor Brendan Lalor was quick praise to Chalidze’s practical knowledge about the law, leaving off on an optimistic note saying “the power that comes through the knowledge, that uplifts me.”

When asked what she wanted people to get out of her lecture, Chalidze was quick to respond.

“We’re closer to the edge then many people may think, and it’s not normal to have the government monitoring to punish us for disagreeing,” she said.