Understanding American Government Surveillance Law through an Analysis of Snowden Event

Through the legal analysis of American government surveillance programs, such as Telephony Metadata, PRISM and MUSCULAR, one can find that both the constitutionality and reasonableness of the rules backing the surveillance programs should be reconsidered. The rule of Third Party Exception which was established by the Supreme Court in 1970's becomes unreasonable under the background modern information technology. The PATRIOT Act which was enacted by the legislature after the event of 911 overly expanded the government's power of collecting data under the pretext of anti-terror. The legislature should reform the current legal rules of government surveillance to keep the balance between national security and personal privacy.