Supplemental Debate Briefs 2012

BidRoundBriefs Supplemental Debate Briefs NFL2012
Supplemental Debate Briefs

The U.S. should provide financial assistance to the Eurozone. ............................ 4
PRO CARDS ................................................................................................................................................ 5 CON CARDS ............................................................................................................................................... 7
Parent trigger laws are good for education. ...................................................... 13 NOTES............................................................................................................... 13

PRO CARDS .............................................................................................................................................. 14 CON CARDS ............................................................................................................................................. 16
The U.S. military should be involved in the War on Drugs. ................................ 20 NOTES............................................................................................................... 20
Prisons should be permitted to use suspicionless strip searches of those arrested for any offense.................................................................................................. 37 NOTES............................................................................................................... 37
Congress should prohibit dual citizenship. ........................................................ 43 NOTES............................................................................................................... 43

The U.S. governments TV indecency enforcement policies regarding profanity and sexual content violated the free speech rights of broadcasters. ................. 50 Strategy ............................................................................................................ 50
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Resolved: Race and gender preference policies are a necessary tool for colleges and universities. ............................................................................................... 59
Congress should extend the current interest rates on Federal student loans. ... 73 Notes ................................................................................................................ 73
Neg .......................................................................................................................................................... 81
Law enforcement officials should be permitted to use GPS tracking devices to monitor suspects without a search warrant. ..................................................... 89 Notes: ............................................................................................................... 89
Aff ............................................................................................................................................................ 91 Neg .......................................................................................................................................................... 98
Resolved: The U.N. should Admit Palestine as a Member State ...................... 115 Notes: ............................................................................................................. 115 Government regulation of obesity is in the best interest of the people........... 128 Notes: ............................................................................................................. 128
Pro ......................................................................................................................................................... 129 Con ........................................................................................................................................................ 140
The U.S. should provide military aid to Syrian opposition forces. .................... 145 Notes: ............................................................................................................. 145
Pro ......................................................................................................................................................... 146 Con ........................................................................................................................................................ 156
States should have the authority to enforce immigration matters. ................. 169 Notes: ............................................................................................................. 169
PRO........................................................................................................................................................ 170 Con ........................................................................................................................................................ 176
The U.S. tax code should abandon the existing deductions for charitable giving. ....................................................................................................................... 182
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Notes .............................................................................................................. 182
Pro ......................................................................................................................................................... 183 Con ........................................................................................................................................................ 193
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The U.S. should provide financial assistance to the Eurozone.
NOTES
Financial assistance would most likely take the form of a loan. Supposedly this wouldnt hurt the US as badly as simply giving the Eurozone a grant (free money) because they would have to repay a loan. You could also argue that the US would provide the money through the World Bank because thats the way we provided financial assistance to Europe after World War II. That way, we wouldnt be the only ones bearing the risk.
Remember, financial markets are now all interconnected. If Europe goes down, we go down too.
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BidRoundBriefs Supplemental Debate Briefs NFL2012 PRO CARDS
The U.S. has told the IMF not to promise further financial assistance to Europe
Edwin Truman, Feb 14, 2012, NY Times, Europe v. World, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/opinion/europe-v-world.html
FOR the third time in a century, a bitter conflict fueled by historic grievances has erupted in Europe, with the United States looking from afar and hoping not to get involved. Of course, this is not being fought on the battlefields but in the arcane arenas of international finance. But as in World War I, which President Woodrow Wilson once dismissed as a drunken brawl, and in World War II, which America formally stayed out of until Pearl Harbor, the crisis over the euro will require further American involvement whether we like it or not.Currently, the United States is discouraging the International Monetary Fund and its non-European members from promising additional financial assistance to Europe.
US leadership is key; the US needs to rally the rest of the world in support of Europe
Edwin Truman, Feb 14, 2012, NY Times, Europe v. World, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/opinion/europe-v-world.html
But policy passivity risks exacerbating the European crisis and its macroeconomic effects. The United States must show more leadership. First, it must be bolder and more public in setting conditions on Europes loan programs. Then, if Europe finally responds convincingly, the United States should rally the rest of the world in a supporting role.
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When we provided financial assistance to Europe after WWII, it contributed to American prosperity by stimulating demand for US goods in Europeans markets. If Europe remains unemployed, their purchasing power remains dangerously low.
Reich, Robert B., Secretary of Labor for President Clinton, currently a professor at UC Berkeley, (2010-09-21). Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future (Vintage) (Kindle Locations 709-717). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
Notwithstanding all this, the nation also found the time and the money in these years to rebuild Western Europe and Japanspending billions of dollars to restore foreign factories, roads, railways, and schools. The old imperialismexploitation for foreign profithas no place in our plans, President Harry Truman magnanimously pronounced in his Point Four program of technological assistance to developing nations. What we envisage is a program of development based on the concept of democratic fair-dealing. (He might have added: and the containment of the Soviet menace.) The effort proved an astounding success. The years 1945 to 1970 witnessed the most dramatic and widely shared economic growth in the history of the world, which contributed to Americas Great Prosperity. In helping to restore the worlds leading economies and thus keep communism at bay, the new global system of trade and assistance created vast new opportunities for American corporationsfar richer, larger, and more technologically advanced than any other countrysto expand and prosper.
US banks have $767 billion in exposure to European debt (according to BIS). We cant count on Credit Default Swaps to limit our exposure if European debt spirals out of control because CDSs didnt work in 2008 to limit banks exposure to bad mortgages
Commodity Online, Nov 9, 2011, US banks have huge exposure to European debt market, http://www.commodityonline.com/news/usbanks-have-huge-exposure-to-european-debt-market-43558-3-43559.html
US banks have an exposure of $767 billion to the European debt market as per recent data by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). This includes $518 billion in Credit Default Swaps (DCS) and $181 billion in direct lending. With these banks stating that their exposure has been covered, it raises the question who insures the insurer?A Credit Default Swap (CDS) is like an insurance whereby the insuring institution provide a guarantee to the buyer of the CDS to pay the debt in the event the debt holder defaults. In exchange, the buyer of the CDS pay a fee until the expiration of the CDS. But a CDS is different from an insurance in the sense that an outside party can buy a CDS.At the end of Q3, the banks had reported that they held a net exposure of just $45 billion to Europe. What the US banks argue is that they have hedged against possible losses from CDS exposure. But so did many who had taken a CDS against US home mortgages with AIG prior to it's subsequent crash in 2008.
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BidRoundBriefs Supplemental Debate Briefs NFL2012 CON CARDS

US exposure to European debt is small; 5 largest banks only have $50 billion of exposure (thats tiny Goldman Sachs, for example, has $923 billion in total assets); Citi has half their losses insured
Peter Eavis, NY Times, January 29, 2012, U.S. Banks Tally Their Exposure to Europes Debt Maelstrom, http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/u-s-banks-tally-their-exposure-to-europes-debt-maelstrom/
Five large American banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, have more than $80 billion of exposure to Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece, the most economically stressed nations in the euro currency zone, according to a New York Times analysis of the banks financial disclosures.
But these banks have made extensive use of a type of financial insurance, the credit-default swap, to help them offset any losses that might occur if defaults swamped the five troubled nations.
Using these swaps, along with other measures, the five banks have cut their theoretical exposure to the troubled countries by $30 billion, to $50 billion. The analysis also shows that Citigroup has the greatest percentage of its exposure potentially protected, at 47 percent, while Bank of America has bought the least protection, at 12 percent.
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The EU buys more goods from China than it does from the US; China has more savings than the US and should be the one to bail the EU out, if necessary
EuroStat, 2008, International trade of the European Union in 2007, http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-SF-08092/EN/KS-SF-08-092-EN.PDF
Looking at EU-27 imports, China overtook the United States in 2006 and is now the European Unions main supplier, with a share of 16% of the total. The United States and Russia followed with shares of 13% and 10% respectively. Switzerland, Japan and Norway contributed 5% each of all EU-27 imports.
China would bail Europe out. The European debt crisis is hurting Chinese imports.
Qaiser Farooq Gondal, Nov 28, 2011, Washington Times, The impact of the economic crisis in Europe and America on Pakistan, http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/letters-pakistan/2011/nov/28/impact-economic-crisis-europe-and-americapakistan/
Europe is a major importer of Chinese products. The European debt crisis is causing a decrease in imports of those Chinese products to Europe, resulting in a decreased growth in Chinese economy. If Chinas economy slows, it will ultimately slow the Indian economy. India is a major economic partner of China, with trade between them valued at 62 billion dollars. Pakistan-China and Bangladesh-China trade will also slow if the Chinese economy faces decrease in its growth.
The White House has already promised that US taxpayers should not have to bear the burden of helping stabilize Europes economy
Susan Crabtree, Nov 28, 2011, Washington Times, White House: No U.S. bailout for Europe, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/28/no-us-bailout-europe/
The White House said Monday that U.S. taxpayers should not bear the burden of helping stabilize Europes economy, even as President Obama was hosting European Union leaders for a summit amid deepening concerns about the future of the euro.
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Political scientist Ian Bremmer: The American people are no longer willing to be the worlds policeman and the lender of last resort
The Guardian, May 18, 2012, G8 summit at Camp David: 'The US is not about to bail out Europe, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2012/may/18/g8-summit-ian-bremmer-video
In the runup to the G8 summit at Camp David, political scientist Ian Bremmer argues that the United States is no longer willing to play the role of global policeman, nor be a lender of last resort. In his latest book Every Nation For Itself, he describes the 'G-zero' world in which no single country takes leadership a geopolitical phase that he expects to hold for five to 20 years
Euro collapse inevitable: Greek voters have rejected another bailout. Theyre tired of austerity measures.
Dina Kyriakidou and Harry Papachristou, May 6, 2012, Reuters, Angry Greeks reject bailout, risk euro exit, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/06/us-greece-idUSBRE8440DG20120506
Greek voters enraged by economic hardship caused by the terms of an international bailout turned on ruling parties in an election on Sunday, putting the country's future in the euro zone at risk and threatening to revive Europe's debt crisis.The latest official results, with over 61 percent of the vote counted, showed the only two major parties supporting an EU/IMF program that keeps Greece from bankruptcy would be hard pressed to form a lasting coalition.
Euro collapse = inevitable. Analysts at Citi have upgraded the chance of a Greek exit from the Euro to 75 percent
Reuters, May 8, 2012, Greek euro exit seen manageable, not catastrophic, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-0508/news/31626792_1_euro-zone-euro-area-greek-debt
Citi raised the probability of Greece leaving the euro area to between 50 and 75 percent from 50 percent previously. Its currency strategist, Valentin Marinov, said the bank's economists expect it would be out within 12 to 18 months.
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Aid tradeoff: Americans reject foreign aid during recessions

Stewart Patrick, January 25, 2012, Dispelling Myths About Foreign Aid, http://blogs.cfr.org/patrick/2012/01/25/dispelling-myths-aboutforeign-aid/
During recessions, legislators are quick to target overseas assistance for the scalpel. Unlike military spending, after all, there is no powerful domestic constituency that will be alienated by draconian cuts.
Aid tradeoff: Yemen needs US foreign aid more than Europe does
Tom Peter, CS Monitor, March 23, 2012, US eager to send foreign aid to Yemen, a land battling poverty and Al Qaeda, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2012/0323/US-eager-to-send-foreign-aid-to-Yemen-a-land-battling-poverty-and-AlQaeda
The West sees foreign aid as a way to help counter extremism and issues like child malnutrition, but Yemenis caution against too much, too soon and point to Afghanistan.As the dust settles on a year of popular revolt in Yemen, international actors are looking to shore up the new president as he tackles long-standing humanitarian and security problems not least of all, one of the worlds most worrisome Al Qaeda franchises.
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US cannot afford a bailout; current US debt is $15.7 trillion

US Debt Clock, May 20, 2012, http://www.usdebtclock.org/
The US cannot afford to underwrite European debt; Standard & Poors already downgraded OUR debt last August. If we underwrite European debt, we would be further downgraded.
CBS News, August 5, 2011, S&P downgrades U.S. debt, http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-20088944.html
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's says it has downgraded the United States' credit rating for the first time in the history of the ratings.The credit rating agency says that it is cutting the country's top AAA rating by one notch to AA-plus. The credit agency said late Friday that it is making the move because the deficit reduction plan passed by Congress on Tuesday did not go far enough to stabilize the country's debt situation and that the policymaking is not stable or effective as needed to address the current economic challenge.
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A Euro collapse is good for us. The Euro was threatening the hegemony of the dollar (back in 2009). Now people are forced to invest in the dollar because the Euro in unstable. If we stabilize it, we lose foreign investment.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Oct 2009, The Telegraph, China calls time on dollar hegemony, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/chinabusiness/6266790/China-calls-time-on-dollar-hegemony.html
It is this shift in China and other parts of rising Asia and Latin America that threatens dollar domination, not the pricing of oil contracts. The markets were rattled yesterday by reports since denied that China, France, Japan, Russia, and Gulf states were plotting to replace the Greenback as the currency for commodity sales, but it makes little difference whether crude is sold in dollars, euros, or Venetian Ducats.
What matters is where OPEC oil producers and rising export powers choose to invest their surpluses. If they cease to rotate this wealth into US Treasuries, mortgage bonds, and other US assets, the dollar must weaken over time.
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Parent trigger laws are good for education. NOTES

Parent trigger laws allow parents who are dissatisfied with their local public school to turn over management to a charter organization. Parent trigger laws require only a majority vote of parents with students currently enrolled at the school. These laws essentially allow parents to turn public schools into charter schools.
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Hurricane Katrina forced New Orleans to hand over management of many of its schools to charter organizations (to help rebuild); 60% of students in New Orleans currently attend a charter (highest charter attendance in the country)
Sarah Laskow, Newsweek, Aug 26, 2010, Necessity Is the Mother of Invention, http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/08/26/new-orleans-s-charter-school-revolution.html
In most public school systems in America, students attend the school for which their neighborhood is zoned. But in the five years since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has created a school system unlike any other in the country. We used Katrina as an opportunity to buildnot rebuild, but builda new school system, says Paul Vallas, the outgoing superintendent of the Recovery School District, which, authorized by the state to turn around failing schools, took over most of New Orleanss schools after the storm. Last year more than 60 percent of the citys students attended charter schools; this year nine additional schools switched to a charter model, so that number will be higher. Vallas calls this new paradigm an overwhelmingly publicly funded, predominantly privately run school system.
A new study by Stanford found that charters in New Orleans are increasing reading and math scores at a faster rate than traditional schools
Andrew Vanacore, The Times-Picayune, March 18, 2011, Most New Orleans charter schools outperform traditional schools, study finds, http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2011/03/study_finds_most_new_orleans_c.html
A new analysis of standardized test scores in New Orleans shows a majority of the city's independent charter schools are improving student performance in reading, math or both, at a notably faster rate than traditional schools.
That's an important finding considering the city and state have placed enormous confidence in the success of the charter model. The state's Recovery School District, which took over most city schools after Hurricane Katrina, has turned a majority of those over to charter organizations that are responsible for their own curriculum and day-to-day operations. The Orleans Parish School Board, which kept a handful of high-performing schools, has turned most of those into charters as well. "It's incredibly useful data," RSD Deputy Superintendent Kevin Guitterrez said. "It tells you much more about which schools are really driving student achievement."
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The new analysis of student test scores, from Stanford University, will also help shape the school system's future. The nonprofit group New Schools for New Orleans commissioned the study to help decide which charter organizations will get some of the $28 million in federal grant money available to start up additional schools over the next five years.
A study in NY by Caroline Hoxby (of Stanford) found that students who won the charter school lottery performed better by 8th grade than students who lost the lottery
JOHN HECHINGER and IANTHE JEANNE DUGAN, Wall Street Journal, Sept 2009, Charter Schools Pass Key Test in Study, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125358513141729871.html
New York City students who win a lottery to enroll in charter schools outperform those who don't win spots and go on to attend traditional schools, according to new research to be released Tuesday.
The study, led by Stanford University economics Prof. Caroline Hoxby, is likely to fire up the movement to push states and school districts to expand charter schools -- one of the centerpieces of President Barack Obama's education strategy.
Students dance at Harlem Success Academy in New York this spring. President Barack Obama wants to expand the number of charter schools.
Among students who had spent their academic careers in charter schools, the average eighth grader in Ms. Hoxby's study had a state mathematics test score of 680, compared with 650 for those in traditional schools. The tests are generally scored on a roughly 500 to 800 scale, with 650 representing proficiency.
Ms. Hoxby's study found that the charter-school students, who tend to come from poor and disadvantaged families, scored almost as well as students in the affluent Scarsdale school district in the suburbs north of the city. The English test results showed a similar pattern. The study also found students were more likely to earn a state Regents diploma, given to higher-achieving students, the longer they attended charter schools.
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You can assume that parents will choose to make public schools charter schools, there are three other options: firing half the schools staff, replacing the teachers, and closing the school all together
LA Times, April 8, 2012, No magic bullet for schools, http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/08/opinion/la-ed-trigger-parent-20120408
Hollywood appears ready to call it a winning idea, with plans for a film starring Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal in which parents (and teachers) rise up to take over their school. But in the real world, we're a long way from knowing whether the parent trigger can improve schools. For one thing, no petition has yet been approved; the trigger has not yet been pulled in California or anywhere in the country. And there are further reasons for concern. Three of the reform options the California law outlines replacing half the school's staff; replacing the principal plus some more minor changes; and closing the school altogether, an option that Parent Revolution, the force behind the trigger law, warns parents against have mixed to downright bad records.
Parent trigger laws have failed in California because no charter organizations are willing to take over failing schools
That leaves the fourth option: conversion to a charter school. With Parent Revolution started in large part by charter operators and funded by their supporters, it was assumed that the parent trigger would create a tidal wave of charter conversions. That now appears unlikely, at least in California. After Celerity Educational Group initially expressed willingness to take over a Compton school where a petition ultimately failed, charter organizations are showing no interest in trigger schools.
There are several reasons for this. Charter schools have generally thrived under a lottery enrollment system, in which motivated parents sign up their children for a random drawing that might allow them a seat in the school. But under the parent trigger, charter schools have to accept all students within the low-performing school's attendance boundaries, just as regular public schools do. Few charter operators have been willing to work under that scenario, which tends to result in less dramatic test results for them. Furthermore, the current woeful state of school funding makes it difficult if not impossible for charter schools to provide needed resources just as it's difficult for traditional public schools. And turning around a deeply troubled school is harder than starting a new school with its own campus culture.
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In practice, parents have wanted to take over the school budget themselves and fire teachers rather than convert the school to a charter school
At Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, where the state's second trigger petition was rejected last month, parents don't even want a charter operator. What they seek is the ability to eliminate teachers whom they view as ineffective, pick their own principal and exert authority over their school's budget and curriculum. Those are all understandable goals, but they're not among the options under the poorly written parent trigger law. Many parents signed a petition calling for an independent charter school, run by parents and outside experts, but only in hopes of pressuring the school district to give in to their demands.
California passed the first parent trigger law two years ago; since then, petitions have only been circulated at TWO schools and both petitions failed; where circulated, petitions have created nothing but divineness and chaos
Caroline Grannan, March 20, 2012, NY Times, Triggers Create Nothing but Chaos and Division, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/03/18/hopes-and-fears-for-parent-trigger-laws/triggers-create-nothing-but-chaos-anddivision
The first parent trigger a ploy born here in California collapsed amid chaos, controversy, charges and countercharges of fraud and intimidation.
The second, also in California, ignited more battles, which are still being fought.
There've been no other parent triggers. So it's surprising to see this strategy, which has never improved a school, being proposed in other states. Power and money are being harnessed to push a fad with no track record, in pursuit of dubious turnaround strategies, like charter schools.
Parent Revolution, a well-financed organization founded not by parents but by the charter-school entrepreneur Steve Barr, has been behind both drives in California. Charter schools overall are no more successful than traditional public schools; conversion charters created from troubled schools are especially challenged.
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It's surprising to see a strategy that has never improved a school, being proposed nationally. The first parent trigger was deployed at McKinley Elementary in Compton, near Los Angeles, in 2010. The petition, circulated by paid staffers of Parent Revolution, called for turning the school over to a charter operator. After a divisive fight, courts threw out the trigger petition. And when a charter that the trigger advocates had supposedly clamored for opened not far from McKinley, only one-fifth of McKinleys families transferred their children there, according to The Los Angeles Times.
California's second parent trigger went off last month at Desert Trails Elementary in Adelanto. The predictable charges and countercharges are flying.
This is destroying friendships and all relationships, a Desert Trails parent, Chrissy Guzman-Alvarado, told me this week. With our school divided, parents are scared to speak out or sign anything, and our community is falling apart. All for what?
A petition is not the best way to decide the fate of a school: In one of Californias (two) petition drives, parents alleged that they had been misled about what they were signing, intimidated into signing, and many of the signatures were later found to be fraudulent
Parents Across America, 2011, Why we oppose California's Parent Trigger law, http://parentsacrossamerica.org/wpcontent/uploads/2011/03/PAA_Parent_Trigger-position-final.pdf
In December 2010, signatures of more than 60% of the school's parents were submitted to the 18school district, calling for turning the school over to the Celerity Educational Group charter operator. Soon after the petition was submitted, confusion and chaos broke out. Some parents who signed said they had misunderstood the petition, or had been misled about what it called for. Some Parent Trigger supporters said they had been harassed. Angry parents protested at a Compton school board meeting. The district created a clumsy signature verification process that Parent Revolution branded intimidation. Parent Revolution went to court to quash that process; district officials reviewed the petition signatures and declared many of them invalid. Charges and countercharges continue to fly.
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Stanford did a national assessment of charter schools and found that most performed the same or WORSE than public schools; the number of charters performing worse than public schools was TWICE the number of charters performing better
K-12 Academics, National Evaluations of Charter Schools, http://www.k12academics.com/school-types/charter-school/nationalevaluations-charter-schools
In 2009, the most authoritative study of charter schools was conducted by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University. The report is the first detailed national assessment of charter schools. It analyzed 70% of the nation's students attending charter schools and compared the academic progress of those students with that of demographically matched students in nearby public schools. The report found that 17% of charter schools reported academic gains that were significantly better than traditional public schools; 46% showed no difference from public schools; and 37% were significantly worse than their traditional public school counterparts. The authors of the report considering this a "sobering" finding about the quality of charter schools in the U.S. Charter schools showed a significantly greater variation in quality as compared with the more standardized public schools with many falling below public school performances and a few exceeding them significantly. Results vary for various demographics with Black and Hispanic children not doing as well as they would in public schools, but with children from poverty backgrounds, students learning English, and brighter students doing better; average students do poorer. While the obvious solution to the widely varying quality of charter schools would be to close those who perform below the level of public schools, this is hard to accomplish in practice as even a poor school has its supporters.
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The U.S. military should be involved in the War on Drugs. NOTES
Pro has a lot of offense because they can argue destabilization of governments and the drug trade fuels terrorism. Con can only recapture this ground by arguing drug legalization, which makes military involvement unnecessary. If drugs are legal, legitimate companies provide drugs at a cheaper price than can criminal syndicates, effectively competing the criminals out of the market. This solves the problem overnight, whereas the War on Drugs has failed to decrease drug usage at all in the last 30 years. The problem is really one of DEMAND not of SUPPLY.
The response to increased drug usage (as a result of legalization) is that most of these projections are based on the decreased price. The government could keep the price approximately the same by levying a tax on the drugs, which also increases government revenue. When Prohibition on alcohol ended, the criminal activity surrounding smuggling disappeared, yet now alcohol is more expensive than ever (partially due to all the sin taxes the government collects). Its simply FACT that criminal networks cant compete with big companies, regardless of the price.
The War on Drugs just creates an endless cycle, where even if it were successful, it fails. If it succeeds in stopping part of the drug trade, the price of drugs goes up, which just lures even more profit-seeking criminals into the drug trade. So even success (interdicting drugs and cutting off supply) is failure (vastly increasing prices spur more criminal activity).
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A report by the US Joint Forces Command concluded that Mexico is in danger of collapse from drug forces and we would have to intervene militarily to prevent such a collapse
Kevin Kearney, Feb 2009, Pentagon warns of US military intervention in Mexicos war on drugs, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/mexi-f09.shtml
The United States Joint Forces Command (USJFC), charged with anticipating global threats to US imperialism, issued a report last November entitled Joint Operating Environment 2008 naming Pakistan and Mexico as the nations whose governments are most likely to undergo what it termed rapid collapse. This term goes largely undefined, beyond the assertion that it usually comes as a surprise, has a rapid onset, and poses acute problems. While Pakistan has been a key focus of US imperialism, subjected to an on-going military intervention for several years, Mexicos mention seems unusual at first glance. The report concedes that while the possibility of a sudden collapse of the Mexican government is less likely than in Pakistan, .the government, its politicians, police, and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Ominously, the study concludes: Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone. The immense implications of this statement become clear when one considers that the USJFCone of the nine branches of the Department of Defensecontrols nearly all conventional military forces based in the continental United Statesa force of 1.6 million.
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Mexican citizens support armed US intervention into Mexicos drug war

RT Network, May 16, 2012, Yankee, come here: Mexicans want US to clean up War on Drugs mess, http://www.rt.com/news/mexicocartels-us-troops-390/
More than half of Mexican voters want America take a bigger role in fighting against Mexican drug cartels, a pre-election poll shows. They want the US to take more responsibility for the violence, which they partially blame on the northern neighbor. As many as 28 per cent are even willing to see American troops or anti-drug agents deployed in Mexican territory a surprising result in a strongly nationalistic country with a record of grudges against the US.
The military has many resources that would aid in the war on drugs, such as surveillance and spy satellites, and planes, helicopters, and ships that can help in major counter-narcotics operations
David E Randolph, 1992, National War College, Fort McNair, The United States Military and the War on Drugs, http://www.dtic.mil/cgibin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA437224
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Using military technology in the drug war is key: Drones are good at patrolling the border; have aided in the interdiction of 46,000 pounds of illicit drugs and the capture of 1500 people since 2005
Andrew Brecker, Jan 5, 2012, Huffington Post, Drones On Border Patrol: Unmanned Aircraft Hailed As Cutting-Edge Method Of Patrolling The Border, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/drones-on-border-patrol-u_n_1186559.html
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials are looking to expand the use of remotely piloted surveillance aircraft to cover nearly all of California, allowing the unmanned vehicles to fly over the last major section of the Southwest border.
The agency's Office of Air and Marine expects the Federal Aviation Administration this year to permit it to extend its unmanned aircraft operations into airspace just east of the San Diego metropolitan area, border agency spokeswoman Gina Gray said.
Hailed by some, including U.S. Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., for their cutting-edge technology, the unmanned aircrafts expense and efficacy has been criticized by others.
At a cost of $18.5 million each to operate including radar and sensor systems, maintenance, a ground control station, and the aircraft itself the unmanned aircraft have been credited with helping to seize 46,600 pounds of illicit drugs and catching a relatively small number of people, 7,500, engaged in illegal activity along the border since late 2005.
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US Special Forces succeeded in Columbia 20 years ago in training them and helping them get FARC under control
MacKenzie Eaglen, American Enterprise Institute, May 11, 2012, Green Berets Value Is Proven in War on Drugs, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/05/08/should-us-troops-fight-the-war-on-drugs/green-berets-value-is-proven-in-war-ondrugs
Americas involvement in Colombia stands as a positive example of how military forces and aid can secure American interests and improve the lives of local citizens. Twenty years ago, drug cartels ruled much of Colombia with an iron fist. Drug enforcers paid off judges, the police and local officials as part of a coordinated campaign of terror and intimidation. Individuals who stood up to the cartels often faced brutal execution.
Under Plan Colombia, American aid and advisers, mostly special operations forces, helped Colombian security forces fight FARC rebels and their drug trafficking allies. Colombia was able to recover and today stands as one of Latin Americas most influential success stories.
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We should act in a supportive role; sending Special Forces now (to train our allies) is better than picking up the pieces after they collapse
MacKenzie Eaglen, American Enterprise Institute, May 11, 2012, Green Berets Value Is Proven in War on Drugs, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/05/08/should-us-troops-fight-the-war-on-drugs/green-berets-value-is-proven-in-war-ondrugs
That does not mean we must send divisions to Latin America. Indeed, quite the opposite. Americas military actions in Latin American and in counternarcotics operations should be thought of as ancillary and in support of law enforcement. Drug trafficking is a symptom of the larger problem of weak governance. Additionally, revenue from the drug trade often fuels organized crime, more corruption and even terrorism.
Special operations forces can play an important role in support of a stable and democratic Latin America. But they are only one tool of many available to the American mission in host countries. It is the job of the ambassador to use as many capabilities as possible to ensure stability -- from law enforcement to institutions and authority, foreign aid and military training.
Ultimately, U.S. military training missions are an economical way to promote security and good governance and to support our friends and allies and prepare them to tackle these problems on their own, as well as help other countries in the region. If a neighboring nation collapsed because of pressure from drug cartels, America could be expected to help pick up the pieces. This would come at a far greater cost -- both human and financial -- than sending a small advisory mission today.
Dire need for US military help: 50 thousand Mexicans have been killed by the cartels since 2006
Tom Burghardt, Global Research, May 14, 2012, Drugs, Terror and the Mlitarization of Mexican Society, http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=30833
Amid recent reports that the bodies of four Mexican journalists were discovered in a canal in the port city of Veracruz, less than a week after another journalist based in that city was found strangled in her home, the U.S. State Department "plans to award a contract to provide a Mexican government security agency with a system that can intercept and analyze information from all types of communications systems," NextGov reported.
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The most glaring and obvious question is: why?
Since President Felipe Caldern declared "war" against some of the region's murderous drug cartels in 2006, some 50,000 Mexicans have been butchered. Activists, journalists, honest law enforcement officials but also ordinary citizens caught in the crossfire, the vast majority of victims, have been the targets of mafia-controlled death squads, corrupt police and the military.
Howard Campbell, professor at UT, says there is spillover violence from Mexican drug cartels infiltrating American cities
Mark Potter, NBC News, March 15, 2012, Debate rages over Mexico 'spillover violence' in U.S., http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/15/10701978-debate-rages-over-mexico-spillover-violence-in-us?lite
"The danger in not having an accurate accounting of spillover violence is that we fail to see that our cities, American cities, are permeated by Mexican drug cartels who are heavily armed, who are criminals involved in multiple different enterprises," said Howard Campbell, an anthropology professor at the University of Texas at El Paso who has studied the drug cartels extensively.
The US has a long history of sending Green Berets to South America to train their counter-narcotics agents; our trainers are direly needed in Honduras and Mexico. The only reason we stopped is because 9/11 over-stretched our military.
Steven Bucci, a former Green Beret officer, is a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, May 8, 2012, Resuming a Mission Put on Hold After 9/11, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/05/08/should-us-troops-fight-the-war-on-drugs/resuming-amission-put-on-hold-after-911
The deployment of special forces (Green Berets) to support Honduras in its fight against drug cartels has sparked great interest and in some quarters alarm. Why? This is not a new development; it is simply the resumption of longstanding and successful programs that were put on the back burner because of the war on terrorism, which has made tremendous demands on these superb warriors since 9/11.
Throughout the late 1980s and all of the 1990s, Green Berets were deployed to numerous Central and South American countries to help our friends there in their struggle to stop the various drug cartels from further undermining the rule of law. The missions focused on training the local military and paramilitary police units responsible for fighting the drug lords in their country.
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U.S. officers and noncommissioned officers taught intelligence gathering, small-unit tactics, human rights protection and civilian-military relations to the host nation troops. They never accompanied their students on missions. Nor did they ever conduct independent missions as portrayed in Tom Clancys well-known book Clear and Present Danger (later a Harrison Ford movie).
The actual training missions were conducted in, Bolivia, Venezuela, Columbia, Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador, as well as Honduras and other nations. They were highly effective, added materially to both the war on drugs and the stability of the host counties.
The resumption of these missions, given the growing threat of the Mexican cartels, is wise. It also shows that the post-9/11 operational tempo has begun to slacken a bit. As one who personally worked these missions during the described time period, I am happy to see the resumption. Illegal drugs remain a huge threat to our people, and to the stability of our southern neighbors. Sending our best to help in this fight may not be new, but it is right.
The State Department has said that cutting off the heroin trade in Afghanistan is critical to winning the global war on terror
Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 2004, The Spoils of War: Afghanistan's Multibillion Dollar Heroin Trade, http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO404A.html
The heroin business is said to be "filling the coffers of the Taliban". In the words of the US State Department:
"Opium is a source of literally billions of dollars to extremist and criminal groups... [C]utting down the opium supply is central to establishing a secure and stable democracy, as well as winning the global war on terrorism," (Statement of Assistant Secretary of State Robert Charles. Congressional Hearing, 1 April 2004)
70% of Taliban funding comes from the heroin trade. Of course the military needs to be involved. 27 | P a g e

NPR, 2009, Heroin, The Taliban And The 'Seeds Of Terror', http://m.npr.org/story/103957098
Journalist Gretchen Peters spent five years traveling the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan to research and write her new book Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda. Peters says that the rejuvenated Taliban gets 70 percent of its funds from opium, and that there is overwhelming circumstantial evidence of Osama bin Ladens involvement in the drug trade. Peters covered Pakistan and Afghanistan for more than a decade, first for The Associated Press and later as a reporter for ABC News.
Legalization would increase drug usage, based on the experience of Holland

Mike Moffatt, Would Marijuana Legalization Increase the Demand for Marijuana, http://economics.about.com/od/marijuanalegalization/a/marijuanademand.htm
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency believes that demand for marijuana would skyrocket if legalized:
Legalization proponents claim, absurdly, that making illegal drugs legal would not cause more of these substances to be consumed, nor would addiction increase. They claim that many people can use drugs in moderation and that many would choose not to use drugs, just as many abstain from alcohol and tobacco now. Yet how much misery can already be attributed to alcoholism and smoking? Is the answer to just add more misery and addiction? From 1984 to 1996, the Dutch liberalized the use of cannabis. Surveys reveal that lifetime prevalence of cannabis in Holland increased consistently and sharply. For the age group 18-20, the increase is from 15 percent in 1984 to 44 percent in 1996.
RAND study: legalizing marijuana would drop the price by 80% and increase drug usage
Francine Kiefer, CS Monitor, July 2010, RAND study: Legalizing marijuana will increase use. Is this what parents want for their kids?, http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Editorial-Board-Blog/2010/0709/RAND-study-Legalizing-marijuana-will-increase-use.-Is-thiswhat-parents-want-for-their-kids
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This week the RAND Corporation came out with a study that said that legalizing marijuana in California as a November ballot measure proposes could cut the price of pot by as much as 80 percent, and will increase use.
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Empowering militaries in countries with weak governance is dangerous. We should train civilian law enforcement instead of relying on the military (which would require civilian police trainers not military ones)
Michael Shifter, Professor at Georgetown University, May 8, 2012, Military Aid Is Unattractive, but Unavoidable, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/05/08/should-us-troops-fight-the-war-on-drugs/military-aid-is-unattractive-butunavoidable
The spreading drug-fueled violence in Honduras arguably the most troubled country in the Western Hemisphere should be addressed through effective civilian law enforcement institutions, not military forces. Strengthening such institutions should be the principal focus of U.S. policy and cooperation with Honduras and other nations beset by criminal violence. The problem, however, is that building professional police forces is a difficult, long-term task, and countries like Honduras, with the worlds highest level of homicides, can hardly afford to wait. There is, understandably, enormous public pressure to call on the military to help contain the violence. There are considerable risks associated with building up militaries in countries like Honduras, with precarious governance and a history of rights abuses. But such risks have to be weighed against the risks of the current, deteriorating situation, which has taken a tremendous human toll and poses a serious threat to the rule of law.
Military units we train stage coups

Vanda Felbab-Brown is a fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, May 8, 2012, Sensible Policing Is Needed, Not Special Forces, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/05/08/should-us-troops-fight-the-war-on-drugs/sensible-policing-is-needed-notspecial-forces
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The favorite counternarcotics recipe of special operations forces is to set up specialized interdiction units (S.I.U.'s) with local forces to kill or capture high-value traffickers. In areas with weak governments and high levels of corruption, like Central America or West Africa, these units are themselves prime targets for corruption and can become powerful and technologically savvy drug traffickers or even forces that will stage a coup against the government.
Sending troops has contributed to charges of American imperialism, leading to an alienation of Brazil. Considering that we didnt oppose the 2009 cuop in Honduras and are now sending troops there, charges of imperialism will resurface
Tom Hayden, NY Times, May 11, 2012, Dont Return to a Grim Chapter of Our History, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/05/08/should-us-troops-fight-the-war-on-drugs/dont-return-to-a-grim-chapter-of-ourhistory
After the failure of our costly ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our government is expanding its special operations forces in many countries. The regular Army is deploying units under special ops as well, and now 600 American soldiers are operating in Honduras in the name of the drug war. This emerging U.S. doctrine is glamorous and cheap, leaves fewer American casualties, and can be conducted in the shadows, undermining the checks and balances expected by Congress, the news media, investigative researchers and pesky protesters.In Latin America, things may grow worse. The region knows, while North America forgets, that the C.I.A. and Green Berets tried to thwart 20 popular insurgencies and support military dictatorships for decades. Now in many of those same countries, like the powerhouse Brazil, the insurgents have come to power through elections, and the United States is marginalized, with most of Central and South America demanding alternatives to the military war on drugs.Latin America remembers our role in supporting undemocratic governments. Let's not do it again.After taking no action in 2009 to stop a military coup against an elected president in Honduras, now we are deploying 600 troops. Is it any wonder that we appear to be Yankee imperialists once again, and that no good can come of this?
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We should instead adopt FDRs Good Neighbor policy of stopping US military intervention in Latin America
Tom Hayden, NY Times, May 11, 2012, Dont Return to a Grim Chapter of Our History, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/05/08/should-us-troops-fight-the-war-on-drugs/dont-return-to-a-grim-chapter-of-ourhistory
If we must repeat history, its wiser to return to Franklin Roosevelts Good Neighbor policies as the starting point. F.D.R. ended blatant U.S. military interventions and supported Mexicos nationalization of oil, in hopes of forging a democratic hemispheric alliance in a threatening world.
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A new report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy has concluded that the war on drugs has failed (to decrease drug usage), that interdiction policies simply lead to the creation of dangerous criminal smuggling syndicates, and only legalizing drugs will solve
Juan Carlos Hidalgo, Cato Institute, June 2, 2011, Report: The Global War on Drugs Has Failed, http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/reportthe-global-war-on-drugs-has-failed/
The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world. That is the opening sentence of a report released today by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, a nineteen-member panel that includes, among others, world figures such as former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and former NATO Secretary General Javier Solana. The report is also signed by the current Prime Minister of Greece, George Papandreou, making him the only sitting head of government to openly denounce global drug prohibition.
The 20-page report says all the right things: prohibition has failed in tackling global consumption of drugs, and has instead led to the creation of black markets and criminal networks that resort to violence and corruption in order to carry out their business. This drug-related violence now threatens the institutional stability of entire nations, particularly in the developing world. Also, prohibition has caused the stigmatization and marginalization of people who use illegal drugs, making it more difficult to help people who are addicted to drugs. The report also denounces what it properly calls drug control imperialism, that is, how the United States has worked strenuously over the last 50 years to ensure that all countries adopt the same rigid approach to drug policy.
In the recommendations section, the report praises the experience of Portugal with drug decriminalization, mentioning Catos study on the subject. But perhaps more importantly, it states that drug legalization is a policy option that should be explored with the same rigor as any other. Until now, similar reports have denounced the war on drugs and perhaps called for the decriminalization of marijuana and other soft drugs, but they also have stopped short of mentioning drug legalization as a policy alternative.
Decriminalizing drugs (treating it as a public health issue rather than a criminal one or a war) has led to a 50% decline in drug usage in Portugal over the last 10 years
Erik Kain, 7/5/2011, Forbes, Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal, http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/05/ten-years-after-decriminalization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/
Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the 33 | P a g e

violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts.Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs. One decade after this unprecedented experiment, drug abuse is down by half:Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugals decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.
Latin American presidents are clamoring for legalization; the problem is the huge US drug market fuels the cartels spending on weapons
Rafael Romo, CNN Senior Latin American Affairs Editor, July 26, 2011, Former Mexican president urges legalizing drugs, http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-26/world/mexico.drugs_1_drug-cartels-drug-policy-drug-violence?_s=PM:WORLD
Ex-President Fox, a former Coca-Cola executive who was the president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006, said the Mexican government should also "demand that the United States do its part."
"The United States has a huge responsibility. It's not enough that they give us (Mexico) a tip, saying 'Here's 500 million dollars. Go do your homework. You can pay us back with blood and with dead bodies,' " Fox said.
Mexican drug cartels buy their weapons and launder drug money in the United States, he said.
Fox said Mexico has fallen into a trap "between the gigantic U.S. drug market and the (illicit) drug producers in South American countries like Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and others.
Fox is not alone in advocating for legalization of some drugs for personal use. Two years ago, three former Latin American presidents proposed radical changes in drug policy for the region.
Brazil's Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Colombia's Cesar Gaviria, and Mexico's Ernesto Zedillo wrote in the 2009 final report of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy that "Prohibitionist policies based on the eradication of production and on the disruption of drug flows as well as on the 34 | P a g e

criminalization of consumption have not yielded the expected results. We are farther than ever from the announced goal of eradicating drugs."
Legalizing drugs would cut the crime rate in half in the US

Steven Duke, 1993, LA Times, How Legalization Would Cut Crime, http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Misc/media2.htm
In her assertion that legalizing drugs would markedly reduce crime, Dr. Joycelyn Elders was clearly correct. Given the enormity of the nation's crime problem, her suggestion that legalization should be "studied" was also plainly right. In asserting that the matter should not even be thought about, the Administration behaved like religious rulers decrying heresy. What should be embarrassing to an Administration elected on a promise of "change" is not what its surgeon general said, but her White House colleagues' contemptuous dismissal of what she said.
That drug prohibition is responsible for much of the crime in this country is beyond dispute. In terms of crime rates, the most serious mistake America ever made was to limit its repeal of Prohibition to a single drug -- alcohol, the only drug that commonly triggers violent propensities in its users. Had we fully repealed drug prohibition in 1933, our crime rates today would be no more than half what they now are.
Property crime rates have tripled and violent crime rates have doubled since President Richard M. Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Agency in 1973 and declared an "all-out global war"to end the "drug menace." The connection is not coincidental.
The more effective are law-enforcement efforts against drug distribution, the more costly the drugs become to their consumers. After a generation of escalating drug war efforts, the costs of marijuana, cocaine and heroin are about 100 times what they would be in a free market. The inevitable effect of jacking up the cost of drugs is the commission of crime by drug users to obtain money to buy drugs.
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In a recent survey of persons in prison for robbery or burglary, one out of three said that they committed their crimes in order to buy drugs. In a survey of adolescents, those who admitted using cocaine, 1.3%, accounted for 49% of the admitted crimes. In several studies of prisoners, 65% to 80% have admitted regular or lifetime illicit drug use. About 75% of our robberies, thefts, burglaries and related assaults are committed by drug abusers. Numerous studies show that drug users commit far fewer crimes when undergoing outpatient drug therapy or even when the price of drugs drops.
Legalizing drugs would relieve the strain on state prison systems and on state budgets
Steven Duke, 1993, LA Times, How Legalization Would Cut Crime, http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Misc/media2.htm
The drug war also deeply undercuts the role of incarceration in dealing with people convicted of such serious crimes as child molesting, rape, kidnaping and homicide. There is no room in our prisons: 40 states are under court orders for overcrowding. Funds are not available to build prisons fast enough to provide the needed space. Violent criminals are being paroled early or are having their sentences chopped to make space for drug users and dealers.
Decreasing prison population would allow us to focus on more important things. California spends 6 times more on prison inmates than on college students. It costs $50,000 per year to keep someone in jail.
Think Progress, 4/5/2012, http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/04/05/458148/california-spends-six-times-more-on-prison-inmatesthan-on-college-students/?mobile=nc
CALIFORNIA SPENDS SIX TIMES MORE ON PRISON INMATES THAN ON COLLEGE STUDENTS | CNNs Fareed Zakaria took on the issue of criminal justice reform on his show, Fareed Zakaria GPS, this weekend, highlighting that 760 of every 100,000 Americans is incarcerated, more than seven times the incarceration rates for most European countries. Those high incarceration rates have forced states across the country to spend more on prisons than they do on education. California, for instance, spent $9.6 billion on prisons in 2011 but just $5.7 billion on higher education. The state spends $8,667 per student, per year compared to roughly $50,000 per inmate, per year. In the last 30 years, Zakaria noted, California has built 20 new prisons and just one new college campus.
Money spent in the war on drugs has NO EFFECT on drug use 36 | P a g e

Maia Szalavitz, Oct 2010, Time, Prop 19 Analysis: Will Marijuana Legalization Increase Use?, http://healthland.time.com/2010/10/07/prop-19-analysis-will-marijuana-legalization-increase%C2%A0use/#arrests
No scientific evidence demonstrates an association between the amount of money governments spend on drug law enforcement and rates of drug use, says Dr. Evan Wood, a professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, founder of ICSDP and lead author of the report. And some nations like the U.S., which spend the most have among the highest rates of drug use. (More on Time.com: 30 Years Since Jimmys World: The Media and Drugs)
Prisons should be permitted to use suspicionless strip searches of those arrested for any offense. NOTES
This resolution is based on a recent Supreme Court decision, Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of the County of Burlington, which (on a 5-4 decision) upheld the right of prisons to perform suspicionless strip searches for minor offenses. Note that a strip search is any search where the clothes are removed, not necessarily just a search of body cavities.
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A man snuck a GUN into prison inside his rectum Huffington Post, 1/6/2012, Man Hides Gun In Rectum: Michael Leon Ward Smuggled 10-Inch Weapon, Cops Say, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/16/man-hides-gun-in-rectum_n_1208666.html
There are some places you should definitely not hide a gun.Police in North Carolina believe that despite multiple searches after a traffic violation , a suspect managed to sneak a 10-inch gun into a prison last Monday by concealing the weapon in his rectum.
Justice Kennedy: its impractical for prisons to have to exempt one class of prisoners from routine searches
Nina Totenberg, NPR, April 2, 2012, Supreme Court OKs Strip Searches For Minor Offenses, http://www.npr.org/2012/04/02/149866209/high-court-supports-strip-searches-for-minor-offenders
But Kennedy said that given the number of total arrests each year 13 million it would be unworkable for correctional officials to exempt one class of prisoner from strip searches. Indeed, he added, even people detained for minor offenses can turn out to be "the most devious and dangerous criminals." He cited, for instance, the case of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, who was detained initially for driving without a license plate.
Forcing prisoners to strip and submit to routine searches is key for 3 reasons: 1) to check for lice, 2) to record any tattoos as evidence of gang membership, and 3) to prevent the smuggling of drugs and weapons in body cavities
USA Today, 4/2/2012, High court upholds jailhouse strip searches, http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/story/2012-0402/supreme-court-strip-search/53945028/1
Kennedy gave three reasons to justify routine searches detecting lice and contagious infections, looking for tattoos and other evidence of gang membership and preventing smuggling of drugs and weapons. 38 | P a g e
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CON CARDS
Albert Florence was arrested BY MISTAKE for failing to pay a fine and was then strip searched, TWICE
Albert Florence, his wife and little boy were on their way to his parents' home in 2005, when they were pulled over by a state trooper. Mrs. Florence was at the wheel, but the trooper's roadside state records check showed a seven-year-old outstanding arrest warrant for Albert Florence for failing to pay a fine. Florence said he had paid the fine, and pulled out a receipt, which he kept in the car. But the trooper said there was nothing he could do. Florence was handcuffed and taken to the local county jail.
The state would later admit it had failed to properly purge the arrest warrant, but at the time of the arrest, the error turned into a "nightmare," Florence said. He was held in jail for seven days and stripsearched twice.
Justice Breyers dissent: people arrested for minor offenses should not be strip searched without probable cause. There are 700,000 arrest for minor offenses. People HAVE been strip searched in the past after arrest for: having a headlight out, failing to pay a parking ticket, not having their dog on a leash, and riding a bike without an audible bell
The dissenters, led by Justice Stephen Breyer, argued that when a detainee is brought in on a minor charge that involves neither violence nor drugs, correctional officials should have to cite some reason to justify a strip search, as opposed to a less invasive screening with a metal detector or even an inspection of a detainee in his or her underwear. There are some 700,000 arrests for such minor offenses each year, and most of those arrested are brought before a judge and released pending resolution of their case. But an undetermined number have found themselves behind bars because there is no judge on duty, because of a bureaucratic snafu, or an error as in this case.Breyer noted that people have been detained and strip-searched for offenses as minor as driving with an inoperable headlight, having 40 | P a g e

outstanding parking tickets, violating a dog leash law, and riding a bike without an audible bell. None of these people could have anticipated being arrested, he said, and none would likely have hidden weapons inside their body cavities.
A2: its impractical to exempt one class of criminal 10 states do

In fact, at least 10 states outlaw routine strip searches of those arrested for minor charges, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service bar visual body cavity searches for those arrested on misdemeanor or civil contempt charges. "What the court did was to take a practice that was not universal and give it its constitutional imprimatur," says Harvard Law School professor Carol Steiker. The open question, she said, is whether states that have forbidden this practice will now move to permit blanket strip searches of those arrested for minor charges.
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A2: lice/weapons; prisoners already have to submit to a metal detector, pat down search, and shower with a delousing agent
USA Today, 4/2/2012, High court upholds jailhouse strip searches, http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/story/2012-0402/supreme-court-strip-search/53945028/1
In his dissent, Breyer said inmates in the two New Jersey jails already have to submit to pat-down searches, pass through metal detectors, shower with delousing agents and have their clothing searched.
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Congress should prohibit dual citizenship. NOTES
Dual citizenship is quite common in the US, since we have birthright citizenship (you are an automatic citizen if born on US soil), whereas many other countries have jus sanguinis (citizenship by blood), whereby you are automatically a citizen if your parents are citizens. This leads to birth tourism, where a citizen from, say, China comes to the US just to give birth. The baby has US citizenship (by birthright) and Chinese citizenship (by blood).
If we prohibited dual citizenship, a birthright citizen would have to choose either US citizenship or the citizenship of his or her parents. This would prevent people from gaming the system through birth tourism.
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Dual citizenship allows people a tax exemption of $80,000 if they claim to reside, for at least part of the year, abroad
Chris Hansen, former Accountant at Deloitte, 2006, US Expats and Taxes, http://www.christianphansen.com/USTaxes.html
I often get questions about the tax liabilities of someone with dual U.S./U.K. citizenship. In short, U.S. law states that every U.S. citizen or resident alien, wherever s/he lives, is required to file a U.S. income tax return. Fortunately, U.S. law also states that, for a citizen or resident alien (that is, a Green Card holder) who is legally resident for tax purposes in another jurisdiction, a certain amount of their income is exempted from U.S. tax liability. The definition of being "tax domiciled" in another country is somewhat complex, and you should look at your tax instruction book under the instruction for Form 2555. For the 2006 tax year, this exemption will be $82,400. It will in future be indexed to U.S. inflation levels. You may make as salary an amount up to the specified income level without having to pay any U.S. tax on that income. I do not yet make this much, thus I haven't paid any U.S. taxes since the 1994 tax year. However, I have filed a return each year.
National loyalty is indivisible who would you have loyalty to in a war?

David Martin, Professor at University of Virginia School of Law, 2004, Dual Nationality: TRs Self-Evident Absurdity, http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/alumni/uvalawyer/sp05/martin_lecture.htm
TR was known for his exuberance, of course. One journalist wrote: You go into Roosevelts presence... and you go home and wring the personality out of your clothes. His hyperbole nonetheless brings home to us the common citizenship assumption of the early 20th century, a few risk-averse diplomats to the contrary notwithstandingthat national loyalty is indivisible. This was not just an American view. By 1915 virtually all other governments followed the same theory of nationality. Countries of emigration, having abandoned the perpetual allegiance theory, were usually as vigilant as countries of immigration to base their actions on the same ideathat dual nationality makes no sense, and holds dangers for good relations between nations.
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Dual citizenship violates the oath people take when they become US citizens
David Martin, Professor at University of Virginia School of Law, 2004, Dual Nationality: TRs Self-Evident Absurdity, http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/alumni/uvalawyer/sp05/martin_lecture.htm
There is definitely a problem here. Our naturalization law, following a pattern set in 1795, spells out in considerable detail the oath to which a new citizen must swear. Its rich, old-fashioned language requires a pledge:
that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen....
You can come here, reap the benefits, and then renounce your US citizenship when its time to pay taxes, as did Eduardo Saverin, who renounced his US citizenship so he didnt have to pay taxes on the money he made from the Facebook IPO
Laura Sanders, May 18, 2012, Wall Street Journal, Should You Renounce Your U.S. Citizenship?, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303879604577410021186373802.html
For some people, the best tax strategy is simply to pack up and leave.That is the lesson from the disclosure that Eduardo Saverin, the 30-year-old billionaire who helped found Facebook, FB +0.61% has renounced his U.S. citizenship to become a resident of Singapore.Singapore offers huge tax advantages for people like Mr. Saverin, whose wealth is primarily in the form of capital gains. The Southeast Asian city-state has no capital-gains tax and its top income-tax rate is 20%compared with rates of 15% and 35%, respectively, in the U.S.
There has been a six-fold increase in the number of people renouncing US citizenship (for tax purposes) since 2008
Whether or not you consider the act of renouncing one's citizenship savvy tax planning, the ultimate protest gesture, a rank insult to a system that enables great wealth or just plain weird, some U.S. 45 | P a g e

taxpayers are pondering such moves. Last year, almost 1,800 U.S. citizens turned in their passports and green cards, a sixfold increase from 2008.
A2: exit taxes; exit taxes dont apply to people who had dual citizenship from birth
You might owe an exit tax. U.S. citizens who expatriate are treated as though they sold all of their property the day before they renounce, even if they will continue to own it and pay property or other taxes.
Capital gains (net of losses) are taxed at the current top rate of 15%, after an exemption of $651,000. The tax on some assets, such as an individual retirement account, will be at ordinary income rates up to 35%, notes Dean Berry, an attorney with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in New York.
The tax applies to U.S. taxpayers whose net worth is greater than $2 million or whose average annual income tax for the past five years is $151,000 (adjusted for inflation).
There are important exemptions; one involves people who have been dual citizens from birth. For more information, see the instructions to IRS form 8854.
One Chinese travel agent admits to helping 600 Chinese mothers give birth in the US
Jon Feere August 2010, Center for Immigration Studies, Birthright Citizenship in the United States: A Global Comparison, http://www.cis.org/birthright-citizenship
In California, three Chinese-owned baby care centers offer expectant mothers a place to give birth to an American citizen for a fee of $14,750, which includes shopping and sightseeing trips. For a $35 daily fee, television, internet, and three meals are provided. We dont encourage moms to break the law just to take advantage of it, explains Robert Zhou, the agencys owner. Zhou says that he and his wife 46 | P a g e

have helped up to 600 women give birth in the United States within the last five years. In fact, they started the business after traveling to the United States to have a child of their own. Zhou explains that the number of agencies like his has soared in the past five years.16
The US has had 12,000 birth tourists from Turkey alone since 2003
Jon Feere August 2010, Center for Immigration Studies, Birthright Citizenship in the United States: A Global Comparison, http://www.cis.org/birthright-citizenship
Birth tourism can be a lucrative business for immigrants who facilitate the travel and birthing process for their former countrymen. Turkish doctors, hotel owners, and immigrant families in the United States have assembled what amounts to a birth-tourism assembly line, reportedly arranging the U.S. birth of 12,000 Turkish children since 2003. The Turkish-owned Marmara Hotel group offers a birth tourism package that includes accommodations at their Manhattan branch. We hosted 15 families last year, said Nur Ercan Maden, head manager of The Marmara Manhattan, adding that the cost was $45,000 each.14
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A2: renounce US citizenship; you have to pay an exit tax and the US has passed a law making it impossible for you to return if you renounce citizenship for tax purposes
Almost any U.S. citizen can decide not to be one. Should you follow Mr. Saverin's lead and high-tail it to a lower-tax country? While it might seem tempting, renouncing one's citizenship has many drawbacks.
Among them: a large "exit tax" owed to the U.S. government upon leaving, steep tax bills for any U.S. heirs and big travel headaches for people who try to return to the U.S. Some lawmakers, picking up on the Saverin case, said Thursday they want to strengthen a law barring expatriates who left for tax reasons from ever re-entering the country.
Exit taxes are quite large you are treated as if you sold all your property (and are taxed on the sale)
You might owe an exit tax. U.S. citizens who expatriate are treated as though they sold all of their property the day before they renounce, even if they will continue to own it and pay property or other taxes.Capital gains (net of losses) are taxed at the current top rate of 15%, after an exemption of $651,000. The tax on some assets, such as an individual retirement account, will be at ordinary income rates up to 35%, notes Dean Berry, an attorney with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in New York.
If they were forced to renounce their native citizenship, fewer skilled immigrants would come here (for example, from India) since their families are often back home and dual citizenship is essential for ease of travel. One fourth of startups are from highly skilled immigrants (200,000 jobs).
Department of Homeland Security, Jan 31, 2012, DHS Reforms To Attract And Retain Highly Skilled Immigrants, http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/fact-sheets/20120131-dhs-retain-highly-skilled-immigrants.shtm
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In last week's State of the Union, President Obama noted that "Innovation is what America has always been about. Most new jobs are created in start-ups and small businesses." He also stated in his remarks in El Paso last May, "In recent years, a full 25 percent of high-tech startups in the United States were founded by immigrants, leading to more than 200,000 jobs in America." Echoing this, the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness stated in its recent report, "Highly skilled immigrants create jobs, they dont take jobs." The initiatives described below will serve to make the United States more attractive to highly-skilled foreign students and workers, thereby improving the competitiveness of U.S. companies in the world market and stimulating U.S. job creation.
Study by Francesca Mazzolari of UCSD found that if the US abolished dual citizenship, people would become less willing to become US citizens. He compares countries that allow dual citizenship to those that do not.
Francesca Mazzolari, University of California: San Diego, April 2005, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, Determinants of Naturalization: The Role of Dual Citizenship Laws, http://www.ccis-ucsd.org/PUBLICATIONS/wrkg117.pdf
Dual citizenship is now tolerated under U.S. law and practice. As the granting of dual nationality by sending countries has spread, however, the relationship between dual citizenship and immigrant integration has emerged as an issue of debate. This paper explores whether or not recognition of dual nationality by sending countries positively affects the U.S. naturalization rate of immigrants from those countries. The empirical analysis draws on data from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Censuses and examines immigrants from the countries of Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Mexico, all of which changed their laws to permit dual citizenship in the 1990s. A utility maximizing framework predicts that, everything else being equal, immigrants coming from a country that has recently allowed dual citizenship should be more likely to naturalize because of the decrease in a major cost of naturalization, specifically the need to forfeit rights in the country of origin. The analysis shows that older cohorts of immigrants from five of the six Latin American countries that have changed the law averaged higher naturalization rates in 2000 compared to other countries. Evidence for more recent immigrants is mixed and appears to be related to the rate of illegal immigration by the origin country.
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The U.S. governments TV indecency enforcement policies regarding profanity and sexual content violated the free speech rights of broadcasters. Strategy
This topic is based on the recent case before the Supreme Court, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) v. Fox Television Stations. The case has not yet been decided. If it were decided, the topic might be circular because the Supreme Court has the power to determine what is or is not Constitutional, so had they already ruled, this topic would be mute. If the Supreme Court says it doesnt violate free speech, then it doesnt. Their word is law. This means precedent (previous cases) are really important on this topic.
So on Aff, you should set up a framework that if the judge believes the Supreme Court should rule in Foxs favor in FCC v. Fox, the Aff should win. This is an easier burden than proving the resolution true, as a general statement.
On Neg, dont let the Aff limit the topic to FCC v. Fox, since that concerns only live TV. The topic would have specified live TV or the specific Court case if it wanted you to talk about that. The topic is negbiased as long as you force the Aff to argue for NO REGULATION of television. Try to paint the judge a 50 | P a g e

picture of children watching Skinemax while their parents arent looking. A child is flipping between channels and suddenly hardcore sex flashes on screen, in between Sesame Street and a Bugs Bunny Cartoon.
Its important to note that FCC v. Fox is about whether the FCC can regulate profanity and sexual content on BROADCAST television. Many people these days have cable, but broadcast television is the type of television picked up by TV antennas. The governments authority for regulating public airwaves is that each broadcast (for both TV and radio) must be broadcast at a certain frequency. If multiple broadcasts go out at the same frequency, then they interfere with each other. There are only a limited number of frequencies that TV and radio shows can use. Thus, it is a limited public resource that the government should have the right to regulate.
Another potential Aff argument is that Citizens United v. FEC upheld corporate personhood, establishing that corporations have First Amendment rights. It is also especially pernicious that the government can regulate what actual normal people and journalists can and cant say on LIVE TV. This directly regulates the speech of individuals, simply because they are appearing on television. For example, if Im giving a speech at a University commencement, but it happens to be broadcast on TV, suddenly FCC rules regulate what I can say.
*However, note that the response to this is that the topic is about broadcasters rights, not the rights of the people who appear on TV broadcasts.]
Another potential Neg argument is that in the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, its clearly shown that Europe has public decency standards for television and movies as well, but they tend to regulate violence more than sexual content, whereas the US doesnt regulate violence AT ALL and regulates sexual content (and swearing) in very extreme ways. It makes no sense that you can see people getting their heads blown off all day, but you cant see a womans bare breast on TV or hear an F-bomb until after 10 pm. What message does that send? Kids, go ahead and blow peoples heads off with guns, but dont swear or have sex. Hopefully kids know not to emulate television or we will have an exceedingly violent society.
Aff also assumes that Parental Control devices and self-regulation dont solve. Nickelodeon isnt going to put naked women in Blues Clues. Parent filters and children-targeted programming solve, without government interference. Kids dont find adult shows entertaining anyways. Given that many 3-year-
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olds are still breast feeding (according to the recent and controversial Time Magazine), nudity probably isnt all that interesting to them.
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PRO CARDS
The FCC has applied the rules in an arbitrary and capricious way
Adam Liptak, NY Times, Jan 10, 2012, TV Decency Is a Puzzler for Justices, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/business/media/supreme-court-weighs-relevance-of-decades-old-broadcast-decencyrules.html?pagewanted=all
The commission has, for instance, said that swearing in Saving Private Ryan, the Steven Spielberg war movie, was not indecent, while swearing by blues masters in a music documentary produced by Martin Scorsese was indecent. Nudity in Schindlers List, another Spielberg movie, was allowed, but a few seconds of partial nudity in NYPD Blue was not.
Justice Elena Kagan offered a summary of the state of federal regulation in this area. The way that this policy seems to work, she said, its like nobody can use dirty words or nudity except for Steven Spielberg.
Broadcasters self-police now; there are already no restrictions after 10 pm on what they show
Justice Alito asked Mr. Phillips what viewers would see on Fox in the absence of regulation. Are they going to be seeing a lot of people parading around in the nude and a stream of expletives?Mr. Phillips said broadcasters were free to show what they like after 10 p.m. and nonetheless voluntarily followed fairly restrictive internal standards.
The problem in FCC v. Fox is that the FCC has started regulating fleeting expletives issued on live TV. Fox doesnt believe that it was fair to penalize it for Meryl Streep accidentally swearing when she forgot her glasses at the Golden Globes 53 | P a g e

Sarah Hall, The Universe, Jan 23, 2012, FCC v. Fox Hits Home, http://universe.byu.edu/index.php/2012/01/23/fcc-v-fox-news/
From sporting events to award shows, lack of censorship has always been an issue with live television. The Supreme Court, through FCC v. Fox, is now debating: how far can television go?While the Supreme Court deliberates, students and faculty share concerns regarding the decision of the case. Trevor Hall, a professor at Boise State, has done extensive research on the FCC and its regulatory power.It *the FCC+ does not have the right to edit or censor, Hall said in an email. However, according to federal statutory law it does have the responsibility to sanction indecent broadcast material. The Supreme Court has recognized this as constitutional. Since the airwaves are essentially public property, this is seen as part of broadcasters public responsibility in exchange for use of the electromagnetic spectrum.Hall said the main issue Fox News had with the FCC was the FCC did not previously regulate fleeting expletives, or non-scripted words said on live TV. However, after a series of outbursts found offensive by the public, the FCC began regulating the expletives without much warning or explanation.
NAB says broadcasters are now afraid to cover live events for fear someone might swear or there might be a nip slip
Al Tompkins, Poynter Institute, Jan 9, 2012, FCC v Fox Profanity Case Will Be Crucial in Broadcast, Free Speech History, http://www.rtdna.org/pages/posts/fcc-v-fox-will-be-crucial-in-broadcast-free-speech-history1524.php
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and RTDNA are loud advocates of the idea that the FCC should lighten up on broadcasters when it comes to airing indecent material. They say the FCCs ambiguous rules create a chilling effect, especially on live programming, even news. In an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, the two groups said:Broadcasters are left to guess at how the policy will apply to them and there is not just a risk but actual evidence that the policy is being applied in a discriminatory manner.Under this regime, broadcasters cannot be sure exactly what the law is and consequently steer far clear of anything that is even arguably indecent.Fearing major fines as a result of live coverage of an event at which a passing expletive may be uttered or nudity fleetingly depicted, broadcasters are reluctantly choosing not to cover certain kinds of events or air certain types of stories or programs at all."
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Two examples of programs broadcasters have refused to air due to fear of swearing
As the Second Circuit recounted in its ruling:
-uncertainty about the Commissions policy has led to broadcasters decisions not to air the Peabody Award-winning 9/11 documentary containing live footage in which expletives were uttered;
-broadcasters decided not to air a political debate because one of the local politicians involved had previously used expletives on air;
More examples of broadcasters not airing live broadcasts out of fear

Second Circuit Court Judge Rosemary Pooler notes other examples:
Several CBS affiliates declined to air the Peabody Award-winning 9/11 documentary, which contains real audio footage including occasional expletives of firefighters in the World Trade Center on September 11th. Although the documentary had previously aired twice without complaint, following the Golden Globes Order affiliates could no longer be sure whether the expletives contained in the documentary could be found indecent. (See Larry Neumeister, Some CBS Affiliates Worry over 9/11 Show, Associated Press, Sept. 3, 2006.)
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In yet another example, a radio station cancelled a planned reading of Tom Wolfes novel I Am Charlotte Simmons, based on a single complaint it received about the adult language in the book, because the station feared FCC action. When the program was reinstated two weeks later, the station decided that it could only safely air the program during the safe harbor period.
CON CARDS
The broadcast spectrum is in the public domain it is a public good
Robert W. McChesney, Communications Professor at the University of Illinois, 2004, The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the 21st Century, Monthly Review Press, Page 38
Four factors explain why broadcasting, far more than any other new medium, generated such a critical juncture for policy that set the terms for much of media policy making for subsequent generations. First and foremost, there were a limited number of frequencies for broadcasting. Only a small portion of those who would like to broadcast would be able to do so. When more than one broadcaster used the same frequency in the same region it created interference and static that made reception difficult, even impossible. The spectrum was in the public domain, and there was no sentiment, even among capitalists, to privatize it, even if that was possible. It fell upon governments, whether they liked it or not, to determine who would be able to secure monopoly rights to the scarce number of frequencies and who would not.
The Communications Act of 1934 granted monopoly rights to certain broadcast frequencies but TV companies had to agree to serve the public interest
Robert W. McChesney, Communications Professor at the University of Illinois, 2004, The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the 21st Century, Monthly Review Press, Page 42
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But the Communications Act of 1934 did not totally deregulate and privatize broadcasting and telecommunication. To the contrary, the law made it clear that government monopoly rights to broadcasting and telecommunication licenses were to be granted with the condition that the commercial recipient serve the public interest. In theory, recipients of these licenses were not to be regarded as pure profit-motivated firms but rather as public service firms. Broadcasters were therefore required to include some programming they would have ordinarily avoided if they were strictly profitmaximizing, and it was this less commercially viable public service programming that justified their possession of the valuable monopoly broadcast license. Cable TV systems, in a similar manner, were expected to make concessions to the public interest to justify their monopoly franchises, usually by setting aside channels for public access and noncommercial use.
The Supreme Court already ruled in 1978 in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation that the FCC could regulate swear words. It upheld the FCCs right to require censorship of George Carlins famous seven dirty words monologue when broadcast on the radio
In 1978, in Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, the court said the government could restrict George Carlins famous seven dirty words monologue, which had been broadcast on the radio in the afternoon. The court relied on what it called the uniquely pervasive nature of broadcast media and its unique accessibility to children.
Justice Scalia pointed out that because these are public airwaves, the government does not even have to show that it harms juveniles in order to regulate the speech they can do whatever they want
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Justice Antonin Scalia, who in other settings has been hostile to government regulation of speech, said there was value in holding the line here.This has a symbolic value, he said, just as we require a certain modicum of dress for the people that attend this court.These are public airwaves, Justice Scalia went on, adding: Im not sure it even has to relate to juveniles, to tell you the truth.
Donald Verrilli, the solicitor general, pointed out that broadcasters agree to FCC regulation in exchange for their broadcast licenses
Donald B. Verrilli Jr., the United States solicitor general, said we would concede that there is not perfect clarity in the commissions approach. But he said the agency heeded context and used its powers sparingly.
Mr. Verrilli also said that broadcasters undertook enforceable public obligations in exchange for their licenses, among them an agreement to comply with restrictions on indecent programming.
A2: parental control; parental control doesnt solve because just like child-proof bottles, the children seem to be the only ones who know how to work them
Justice Anthony Kennedy suggested and then rejected the idea that parents could use technology like a V-chip instead of relying on the government for protection. Theres the chip thats available, he said. And of course, you ask your 15-year-old, or your 10-year-old, how to turn off the chip. Theyre the only ones that know how to do it.
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Chief Justice Roberts: The government is just asking for a few channels that kids can safely watch during the day-time (FCC rules dont apply to premium cable channels pretty much any channel over 12 or satellite channels)
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the only justice with small children, seemed to stumble in describing what was at stake.
All we are asking for , he said, and then he corrected himself. What the government is asking for is a few channels where you can say they are not going to hear the S-word, the F-word. They are not going to see nudity.
Resolved: Race and gender preference policies are a necessary tool for colleges and universities.
PRO CARDS
Black bridges programs are essential to encourage minorities to attend college in communities that might otherwise seem unwelcoming
Anne Arundel Community College, Official Website, Summer Bridge Program History, http://www.aacc.edu/SummerBridge/SBPhistory.cfm
Student retention across the nation is of major concern for faculty and administrators of institutions of higher education. Of even greater concern are the retention and success rates of many minority students, in particular African-American students. Therefore, African American members of the faculty and staff of Anne Arundel Community College joined together as the Black Student Success Team (BSST) to address this national concern at the local level by supporting and further developing college-wide strategies to retain and graduate African American students. 59 | P a g e
The BSST at AACC was established in 2000. The African American faculty and staff held brainstorming meetings to generate programs that would:
Improve study habits Provide a nurturing environment Establish a mentoring system Facilitate interaction among African American students Monitor students during their years at AACC One outgrowth of these brainstorming sessions was to initiate a Summer Bridge Program that provides assistance to incoming African American students to assure their success when they enter AACC.
Beginning in 2001, the Summer Bridge Program utilized the efforts of AACCs faculty and staff to introduce approximately 25 students each summer to the colleges numerous programs as well as to reinforce students academic skills.
Affirmative action opens up the talent pool and leads to a cycle of aid, whereby black doctors are more likely to practice in under-served African American communities
Bill Shaw, Affirmative Action: An Ethical Evaluation, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 7, No. 10 (Oct., 1988), pp. 763-770, Published by: Springer
It should be noted that by opening up opportunities for women and minorities, affirmative action broadens the talent base of business and leads to a recognition of the potential of these groups. A utilitarian argument would demonstrate that a refusal to employ these talents to their best use is "wasteful", and further that affirmative action would benefit the general welfare by (l) promoting minority role models, and (2) improve services for minority communities. For example, blacks who become doctors and lawyers are more likely to meet minority needs that white doctors and lawyers.44
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The increase in the number of black and Hispanic doctors has caused an improvement in health outcomes in their communities
Affirmative Action. Online Highways. Copyright 2001-2010. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1970.html
An example of the policy succeeding is the improvement of schooling for minorities. From 1960 to 1995, the percentage of blacks ages 25-29 who graduated from college rose from 5.4 percent to 15.4 percent. A survey performed in 1993 of 718 primary-care physicians from 51 California communities found a direct relation between the ethnic or race group and the physicians who served them. Increases in African-American and Hispanic physicians have paralleled a proportional rise in the quality of health care received in communities with higher concentrations of those minorities.
Need a critical mass of minorities so they feel comfortable and to promote diversity
Reviewed by Martin J. Sweet, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Honors College, Florida Atlantic University, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR THE FUTURE, by James P. Sterba. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009, http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/lpbr/subpages/reviews/sterba0110.htm
Chapters Seven and Eight advocate and defend diversity affirmative action. Largely, however, Sterba relies on GRUTTER for supplying the rationale for diversity, including quotes from the amici briefs. In a parenthetical, he suggests, without elaboration, that it takes between three and five minority students in a class of 30 to contribute to class dialogue without feeling isolated (p. 71). Given the set-up of the book, discussing conditionality (empirical evaluations of affirmative action), it was disappointing not to receive more here. Can any three black qualified students supply this added value to class dialogue, or are there certain types of black students needed? What types? Must there be special limitations on the other students in the class so that they too contribute to this class dialogue? Might we have to guard against admitting too many homogenous majority applicants? And if so, considering the very real situation of rolling admissions, who gets admitted and declined first? Are students then forced to register for particular classes? All too often Sterba mistakes the noble sounding idea of diversity with how these policies might actually play out. For example, in making his point about the value of diversity, he slips into some misleading anecdotes. Sterba points out that his fast-talking chain-smoking New Yorker partner, and a single minority student who recounted what was likely a hate crime in front of the class, had significant educational benefits for colleges and universities. (p. 72). Having a single professor or student different from the rest of the class, is entirely unrelated to the concept of critical mass at play in GRUTTER. Throughout these chapters, Sterba does skillfully take on affirmative action critics and some anticipated problems with his argument. Certainly in the micro-sense, he is quite strong and adept at finding fault with his critics.
Michigan report: A diverse college is necessary to student learning and learning to be part of a diverse society
American Council on Education, 2002, American Council on Education, Making the case for affirmative action in higher education, http://www.acenet.edu/bookstore/descriptions/making_the_case/works/research.cfm
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The University of Michigan released a publication titled The Compelling Need for Diversity in Higher Education, containing expert reports that were submitted as evidence in two pending lawsuits against the university: Gratz, et al. v. Bollinger, et al. and Grutter, et al. v. Bollinger, et al. One of these reports, by Patricia Gurin, professor of psychology and women's studies at the University of Michigan, presents comprehensive and compelling research that shows that "a racially and ethnically diverse university student body has far-ranging and significant benefits for all students, non-minorities and minorities alike." Based on findings from three parallel empirical analyses of university students, as well as from existing social science theory and research, Gurin concludes that "students learn better in a diverse educational environment, and they are better prepared to become active participants in our pluralistic, democratic society once they leave such a setting."
CON CARDS
Affirmative Action is not necessary; Number of blacks receiving diplomas went up by 4,000 since Prop 209 banned Affirmative Action in California
National Center for Education Statistics, http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/bat/output.asp
Table by State
(**) Data with Changed School Year. Diploma Diploma Diploma Diploma Diploma Diploma Diploma Diploma Diploma Recip.Recip.Recip.Recip.Recip.Recip.Recip.Recip.Recip.Black, Black, Black, Black, Black, Black, Black, Black, Black, Non-Hisp Non-Hisp Non-Hisp Non-Hisp Non-Hisp Non-Hisp Non-Hisp Non-Hisp Non-Hisp (State)(**) (State)(**) (State)(**) (State)(**) (State)(**) (State)(**) (State)(**) (State)(**) (State)(**) [1994-95] [1995-96] [1996-97] [1997-98] [1998-99] [1999-00] [2000-01] [2001-02] [2002-03]
State Abbr (School)
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CA 18,864 19,436 20,742 21,165 22,065 22,536 22,474 23,451 24,855
Affirmative action unfair study by Thomas Kane found that checking that you were Africa American did as much for your application as scoring 400 points higher on the SAT
The Daily Collegian, 2/4/2010, New study assesses potential impact of eliminating affirmative action, http://dailycollegian.com/tag/affirmative-action/
A new study published in the Journal of Labor Economics which attempts to estimate the potential impact of eliminating affirmative action has found there could be striking implications for minority enrollment, particularly at the nations most selective schools. The study, published by California State University, Sacramento professor of economics Jessica Howell, found that if race-neutral college admissions were to be implemented nationwide in college admissions (as has already happened in California, Texas, Florida, Michigan and Washington state), black and Hispanic enrollment would decline two to four percent nationwide, and 10 percent at schools ranked as most selective in admissions. Howells research finds that 30 percent of 2006 applicants to four year colleges were minorities, adding that other evidence has shown that more selective colleges, schools which fall within the top 20 percent of SAT distribution, tend to factor race more heavily in admissions. Howell cites a study published by Ohio State University professor Thomas J. Kane, which finds the preference given to black applicants to be equivalent to 400 points on the SAT or two-thirds of a GPA point.
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Affirmative Action mostly helps RICH African Americans and Hispanics, since they get high scores AND get a boost from their ethnicity. Only 3% come from bottom income bracket at 146 most selective schools
Beth Potier, Harvard Gazette, 4/10/03, Affirming affirmative action, http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/04.10/11-action.html
Guinier, Bennett Boskey Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, challenged the panel to think about ways in which affirmative action does not go far enough. "I think you need to consider both race and class. In many ways, affirmative action is too weak to truly diversify Harvard or any other institution that has such an imbedded preference for wealth in its admissions practices," she said. She cited a recently released study that found that 74 percent of students at the nation's 146 most selective colleges came from families in the top 25 percent income bracket, while only 3 percent of students at those schools came from the bottom quartile.
A rich black person should not be advantaged over a poor Asian person in admissions
Terry Anderson, 2004, The Pursuit of Fairness: A History of Affirmative Action, page 247
Affirmative action for the well-connected a journalist labeled such practices as the question again emerged: Who deserved preferences? I have grave concerns about a policy that tells a young Asian student from a broken family working through high school, said U.C. regent David Flinn, that he would be treated differently than an African American son of a doctor who lives in Beverly Hills.
Affirmative action benefits the wealthy who are more able to take advantage of the opportunity
Thomas Sowell, 2004, Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study, page 120
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In reality, during the period from 1967 to 1992 most of this being in the affirmative action era the top 20 percent of black income-earners had their income share rising at about the same rate as that of their white counterparts, while the bottom 20 percent of black income-earners had their income share fall at more than double the rate of the bottom 20 percent of white income earners. In short, the affirmative action era in the United States saw the more fortunate blacks benefit while the least fortunate lost ground in terms of their share of incomes.
Affirmative action diminishes the accomplishments of those who DO earn their place; At MIT, affirmative action means students dont want to work with blacks because they dont believe they are smart
Jim Meyers. May 3, 2005. Newsmax.com. http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/5/2/151355.shtml
Affirmative action also hurts campus race relationships. Thomas Sowell, author of "Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study," writes: "Even in the absence of overt hostility, black students at M.I.T. complained that other students there did not regard them as being desirable partners on group projects or as people to study with for tough exams."
Study in black colleges found students didnt work as hard because they knew it was easier for them to get into graduate school
Thomas Sowell, 2004, Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study, page 14
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In the United States, a study of black colleges found that even those of their students who were planning to continue on to postgraduate study showed little concern about needing to be prepared because they believe that certain rules would simply be set aside for them.
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Affirmative action just sets them up to fail CA state bar, blacks are four times more likely to fail
Carol William, LA Times Staff Writer, Sept 8, 2008, Does affirmative action help or hurt African American law students?, http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:wrTAX7jqh5EJ:www.martinetsociety.org/news/view.php%3Fdg_entry_id%3D161+affirmative+a ction+blacks+fail+bar+exam&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
In his 19 years as a law professor at UCLA, Richard Sander has pondered a nagging question: Does affirmative action help or hinder African Americans who want to become lawyers? Two years ago, he published research suggesting that racial preferences at law firms might be responsible for black lawyers' high rate of attrition and difficulty making partner. He hypothesized that in the interest of promoting diversity, law firms sometimes hired black lawyers who were underqualified, and that when there was a "credentials gap" between black and white lawyers at a firm, black lawyers often were less likely to advance and more likely to leave the firm. The research stirred debate throughout the legal community, and Sander said he was surprised at the vehemence with which people attacked his motives. A former Volunteers in Service to participant, fair-housing activist and campaigner for Chicago 's first black mayor, Sander, who is white, insisted he was simply trying to examine an important question. Now the professor has waded into another controversy. Sander says his goal this time is to examine whether law schools set up many affirmative action beneficiaries for failure by admitting them into rigorous academic environments in which they are ill-prepared to compete. He proposes to study almost 30 years of data on State Bar of California exam-takers. In the end, he hopes to explain why, as reported in a Law School Admissions Council study in the 1990s, blacks are four times as likely as whites to fail the bar exam on the first try.
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Study finds that students graduate at lower rates and earn less money post-graduation than if they had gone to a school better matched to their abilities
Heather Rose Autumn 2005 University of California at San Diego Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis The Effects of Affirmative Action Programs Vol. 27, No. 3 (), pp. 263-289 http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3699572.pdf
Despite the controversy surrounding affirmative action, few academic studies have focused on the effects of affirmative action because it is often difficult to distinguish which students were admitted under such a program. To assess the potential effects of affirmative action policies, many studies use SAT scores or race to estimate which students were likely admitted through an affirmative action program. Loury and Garman( 1993, 1995)find that students whose SAT scores are much lower than their university's average SAT scores experience lower graduation rates and lower post graduation earnings than they would had they been "matched" to a school at their ability level.
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Prop 209 increases black average GPA at UCSD astronomically (before Prop 209, only ONE black student had a GPA over 3.5, after 20% did)
Gail Heriot, Professor of Law and Herzog Scholar, University of San Diego School of Law, ARTICLE: University of California Admissions under Proposition 209: Unheralded Gains Face an Uncertain Future, Spring 2001, Lexis
At UC-San Diego, for example, in the year before 209's implementation, only one Black student had a freshmanyear GPA of 3.5 or better-a single Black honor student in a freshman class of 3,268. In contrast, twenty percent of the white students on campus had such a GPA. This was not because there were no Black students capable of doing honors work at UC-San Diego. The problem was that such students were often at Harvard, Stanford, or Berkeley, where often they were not receiving honors. Nationwide, misguided affirmative action was creating the illusion that few Black students could excel. Proposition 209 changed that at UC-San Diego, where the performance of Black students improved dramatically after implementation. No longer were Black honor students a rarity. Instead, a full twenty percent of the Black freshmen could boast a GPA of 3.5 or better after their first year. That was higher than the rate for Asians (sixteen percent) and extremely close to the rate for Whites in the same year (twenty percent). UC-San Diego's academic performance experts were obviously delighted. Their 1999 internal academic performance report announced that while overall performance had remained static, "underrepresented students admitted to UCSD in 1998 substantially outperformed their 1997 counterparts" and "the majority/minority performance gap observed in past studies was narrowed considerably." The use of the word "narrowed" was understatement. The report found for the first time "no substantial GPA differences based on race/ethnicity." A discreet footnote made it clear that the report's author knew exactly how this happened: 1998 was the first year of color-blind admissions.
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UCSD black graduation rate doubled after Prop 209 (from 26% to 52%)
Henry Payne, NOVEMBER 1, 2006, Precedents and Preferences, National Review, http://article.nationalreview.com/296045/precedents-and-preferences/henry-payne
But a closer look at the numbers reveals that Prop 209 has not meant an overall decline in minority enrollment in the California system, but a reapportionment of minorities to other schools. UC-Riverside and UC-Santa Cruz, for example, have seen dramatic increases in black admissions with UC-Riversides enrollment alone up 240 percent. Richard Sander, a UCLA law professor who has closely studied college affirmative action programs, points to data from UC-San Diego to illustrate how race-neutral admissions is producing better students. If you compare 1995-96 with 1999-01 a clear before-and-after Prop 209 comparison, says Sander, a longtime liberal civil rights activist, youll see that, for African-Americans, the 1995 class had a four-year graduation rate of 26%, while the 2001 class had a 52% graduation rate [Hispanics numbers are comparable]. For whites and Asians, it barely changes. This is almost certainly due largely to the reduction of preferences. The five and six-year grad rates for minorities get pretty close to the white rates [within five points], which of course means that differences
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Since eliminating affirmative action in 1998, black graduation rates at Berkeley have gone up 7% and for UCLA have gone up 15%
The Journal of Blacks In Higher Education, 2007, Black Student College Graduation Rates Inch Higher But a Large Racial Gap Persists, http://www.jbhe.com/preview/winter07preview.html
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UCSD lets in unqualified students and leads to high dropout rate (who could have succeeded at another UC)
Heather Rose Autumn 2005 University of California at San Diego Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis The Effects of Affirmative Action Programs Vol. 27, No. 3 (), pp. 263-289 http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3699572.pdf
The affirmative action program at UCSD in the early 1990s varied drastically from the one por-trayed in the popular press and from its policies of the past. In the early days of the university, admissions slots outnumbered applicants, and UCSD granted admission to all UC-eligible stu-dents and to another 6% who were ineligible. This policy led to high dropout rates among the un-qualified students. In the early 1990s, it was not UCSD's practice to accept noneligible minority students. Almost always, the students in Group C were eligible to attend a UC school and would have been redirected to a less selective school in the UC system had UCSD denied them admission
Mismatch effect: if minorities get into a law school that is too hard, theyre less likely to graduate and twice as likely to fail the bar exam
Vikram Amar and Richard H. Sander September 26, 2007 LA Times A mismatch effect? http://articles.latimes.com/2007/sep/26/opinion/oe-sander26
This is not a hypothetical question. The schools involved are dozens of law schools in California and elsewhere, and the program is the system of affirmative action that enables hundreds of minority law students to attend more elite institutions than their credentials alone would allow. Data from across the country suggest to some researchers that when law students attend schools where their credentials (including LSAT scores and college grades) are much lower than the median at the school, they actually learn less, are less likely to graduate and are nearly twice as likely to fail the bar exam than they would have been had they gone to less elite schools. This is known as the "mismatch effect."
Affirmative action forces half of black students to switch into easier majors, decreasing the number of engineers in this country. Its better to remain an engineer at an easier school than go to a harder school and major in Communications.
KC Johnson, April 10, 2012, The "Mismatch Thesis," Eye-Opening Research, and the Fisher Case, http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2012/04/the_mismatch_thesis_eye-opening_research_and_fisher.html
Sander does examine the one recent high-profile case in which defenders of the status quo, up to and including the university administration, did not ignore research into the science mismatch thesis--the fiasco at Richard Brodhead's Duke. A study by two Duke professors found that among students who initially expressed an interest in majoring in economics, engineering and the natural sciences, 54 percent of black men and 51 percent of black women ended up switching to the humanities or another social science. The campus Black Student Alliance (BSA) took offense, and in response, Brodhead accused the professors of attempting to "disparage" black students at Duke and he placated the BSA by nearly tripling its budget.
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Congress should extend the current interest rates on Federal student loans. Notes
As the affirmative, there are two strategies: argue the relative merits of a college education, and that students that are dependant on federal aid to attend college will be unable to receive an education and forced out of the system by overly high interest rates if the federal government doesnt keep them down.There are lots of arguments to be made about the benefits of college, especially during a time of slow economic recovery (or arguably, growth), when students have more comfortable lives than those seeking jobs in a volatile market. The other, more powerful strategy, is to argue that students will continue to attend college and accept these higher interest rates because the necessity of a college degree is so great that they have no other choice, but as a result will face massive and staggering debt. The results of this debt then become the affirmative case: defaults, bad credit, dropouts, a credit bubble that could burst (much like the housing bubble), and a general lack of consumer spending and new households (which are vital to the economy) as, just as with the housing market, money and assets are sucked away from the economy by loans and interest rates that freeze the consumer and shut the doors on the possibility of economic growth.
The negative has a few strategies to pursue. For a large part, youll be on the defensive. Your job is to first to prove that nothing is bad as an affirmative team will make it out to be, the average student with federal loans graduates with $13,000 of debt (which is, arguably, a hefty load) and will see an additional $2600 if interest rates are doubled. However, the job is the affirmatives (as they are the ones changing the status quo) to prove that the extra $2600 will be the straw that breaks the camels back. In other words, youll want to place the burden of proof on the affirmative to show that any of the harms they talk about are inherently true, since, while $2600 can be a lot of money, given the larger employment opportunities and salary granted to college graduates, the extra cost is quickly and easily outweighed. Considering that the government does not have a responsibility to provide a free education (or subsidize it, for that matter) to the public, and the current state of politics and the role the budget has played, options that will further reduce government revenue must be absolutely pertinent and necessary. Then argue some offensive points about why student loans are bad, most probably that they end up allowing colleges to keep tuition rates inflated well beyond what they should be, and get rid of the free market incentive for colleges to create competitive pricing for quality education. Combine this with some good defense that reflects lower interest rates doing very little to mitigate many of the problems that higher interest rates would supposedly create, and youll have a good case that keeping rates low is just wasting our governments money. While not included within this supplement, another strongly suggested option would to be run an opportunity cost argument with pre-k education, which the majority of scholars agree to be the best possible educational investment. 73 | P a g e
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College costs roughly 25% of average household income, and prices more than doubled over the last 10 years Radhika Singh Miller (Program Manager for Educational Debt Relief & Outreach at Social Justice Works). US News: Student Loan Ranger. Declining Investments in Higher Education Hurts Students. 4/18/12. http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2012/04/18/how-our-declininginvestment-in-higher-education-hurts-students In the past three decades, college costs have risen significantly faster than inflation and are now at roughly 25 percent of the average household's income. This isn't true just for private schools. According to "The Great Cost Shift," a recent report byDemos, prices for tuition and fees at public, four-year universities more than doubled between 1990-1991 and 2009-2010, rising by 112.5 percent, while prices of two-year colleges rose 71 percent.
STUDENTS CANT GET BY AS IS 45% Increase in Student Defaults on Federal Loans b/w 05-07 Kim Clark. US News & World Report. New Hope for Debtors Struggling with Student Loans. 5/3/10. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/studentloan/articles/2010/05/03/new-hope-for-debtors-struggling-with-student-loans Of course, the vast majority of Americans who use loans to pay for college get jobs and pay their debts. But the recent economic troubles and spike in unemployment have caused thousands of graduates to fall behind on their student loan payments. More than 20 percent of students who took out expensive private loans in the last several years to pay for tuition at some for-profit colleges have defaulted. The government reports that 6.7 percent of those who took federal student loans in 2007 have already defaulted, up from 4.6 percent in 2005. And many analysts predict more Americans will have trouble paying their student loan bills in the coming months.
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Total outstanding student loan debt surpassed credit card debt in 10, and will pass the one-trillion mark in 2012 Isaac Bowers (Senior program manager in the Communications & Outreach unit of Equal Justice Works). US News: Student Loan Ranger. Learn What the Student Loan Forgiveness Act Could Mean for You. 3/21/12http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2012/03/21/learn-what-thestudent-loan-forgiveness-act-could-mean-for-you Normally we don't go into the findings of particular pieces of legislation, but the Student Loan Ranger thinks findings like this are refreshing and show Rep. Clarke is living in the reality most of us inhabit, including:
Total outstanding student loan debt officially surpassed total credit card debt in the United States in 2010, and is on track to exceed $1,000,000,000,000 during 2012;
STUDENTS WILL NOT STOP GOING TO SCHOOL, JUST WILL HAVE MORE DEBT AND HARDER TIME (more likely to default) Lee Johnson. Gainesville Times. Federal Student Loan Interest Rate Could Double. 5/21/12. http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/67819/
But the pending increase might not scare off as many students as expected. Jill Rayner, North Georgias financial aid director, says she thinks the interest hike wont affect the number of federal loans issued, but it could strain students even more after graduation.
I dont think its going to stop students from taking out student loans, said Rayner. I think what will happen is the students may have a more difficult time paying those loans off at the higher interest rate.
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Students have no choice but to amass debt so they can go to college and earn a basic living wage Isaac Bowers (Senior program manager in the Communications & Outreach unit of Equal Justice Works). US News: Student Loan Ranger. Learn What the Student Loan Forgiveness Act Could Mean for You. 3/21/12http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2012/03/21/learn-what-thestudent-loan-forgiveness-act-could-mean-for-you Because of soaring tuition costs, students often have no choice but to amass significant debt to obtain an education that is widely considered a prerequisite for earning a living wage."
The cost to the poorest students is an extra $5,000 every ten years Jennifer Liberto. CNN Money. Student Loan Rate Hike: What You Need to Know. 5/24/12. http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/24/pf/college/student_loans/index.htm If Congress does nothing, the cost to students borrowing the maximum $23,000 in subsidized loans is an extra $5,000 over a 10-year repayment period. The cost to the federal government to extend the lower interest rate is $5.8 billion, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Student loan debt is hurting economic growth in the United States people cant buy homes, invest, or start businesses Isaac Bowers (Senior program manager in the Communications & Outreach unit of Equal Justice Works). US News: Student Loan Ranger. Learn What the Student Loan Forgiveness Act Could Mean for You. 3/21/12http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2012/03/21/learn-what-thestudent-loan-forgiveness-act-could-mean-for-you Excessive student loan debt is impeding economic growthin the United States. Faced with excessive repayment burdens, many individuals are unable to start businesses, invest, or buy homes;
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New households fell by 27% (350k households) between 07-11 b/c of increasing student debt Isaac Bowers (Senior program manager in the Communications & Outreach unit of Equal Justice Works). US News: Student Loan Ranger. Learn What the Student Loan Forgiveness Act Could Mean for You. 3/21/12http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2012/03/21/learn-what-thestudent-loan-forgiveness-act-could-mean-for-you
Of course, the problem is broader than just home sales. According to this New York Times article, only 950,000 new households were created last year, compared to about 1.3 million in 2007, as increasing numbers of new graduates decide to live with their parents rather than forming their own households. Each new household normally adds about $145,000 to the broader economy.
Each new household normally adds $145,000 to the broader economy (50.75 billion lost) Isaac Bowers (Senior program manager in the Communications & Outreach unit of Equal Justice Works). US News: Student Loan Ranger. Learn What the Student Loan Forgiveness Act Could Mean for You. 3/21/12http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2012/03/21/learn-what-thestudent-loan-forgiveness-act-could-mean-for-you
Of course, the problem is broader than just home sales. According to this New York Times article, only 950,000 new households were created last year, compared to about 1.3 million in 2007, as increasing numbers of new graduates decide to live with their parents rather than forming their own households. Each new household normally adds about $145,000 to the broader economy.
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Just like mortgage debt absorbed the income of consumers and made them incapable of contributing and sustaining the growing economy, student loans will paralyze future spenders Isaac Bowers (Senior program manager in the Communications & Outreach unit of Equal Justice Works). US News: Student Loan Ranger. Learn What the Student Loan Forgiveness Act Could Mean for You. 3/21/12http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2012/03/21/learn-what-thestudent-loan-forgiveness-act-could-mean-for-you
A recent report from the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) titled The Student Loan "Debt Bomb": America's Next Mortgage-Style Economic Crisis? portrays this reality starkly: as with the mortgage foreclosure crisis, the staggering amounts owed on student loans also will have repercussions for the broader economy. Just as the housing bubble created a mortgage debt "overhang" that absorbs the income of consumers and renders them unable to afford to engage in the consumer spending that sustains a growing economy, so too are student loans beginning to have the same effect, which will be a drag on the economy for the foreseeable future."
The number of first-time mortgages given out to 29-34 year olds has halved in the last 10 years Bob Willis. Bloomberg Businessweek. Student Debt is Stifling Home Sales. 2/23/12. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-23/student-debt-is-stifling-home-sales According to a recent Federal Reserve study, only 9 percent of 29- to 34-year-olds got a first-time mortgage from 2009 to 2011, compared with 17 percent 10 years earlier. First-time home buyers are typically an important source of incremental housing demand, so their smaller presence in the market affects house prices and construction quite broadly, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said at a homebuilders conference in Orlando on Feb. 10.
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The number of home buyers ages 25-34 dropped by 18% over the last decade, as students coming out of college are burdened with more debt than traditionally they have been Bob Willis. Bloomberg Businessweek. Student Debt is Stifling Home Sales. 2/23/12. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-23/student-debt-is-stifling-home-sales People aged 25 to 34 made up 27 percent of all home buyers in 2011, the lowest share in the past decade and six percentage points below their 33 percent share in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors. Students coming out of college are burdened with more debt than traditionally they have been, and they are also coming into an economy that is underperforming previous recoveries, says Rick Palacios, a senior research analyst at John Burns Real Estate Consulting in Irvine, Calif.
First-time buyers (younger buyers) are key to housing recoveries because they allow current owners to move into larger homes move-up buyers needs somebody to purchase their old smaller homes Bob Willis. Bloomberg Businessweek. Student Debt is Stifling Home Sales. 2/23/12. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-23/student-debt-is-stifling-home-sales Palacios says first-time buyers are key to a housing recovery because they allow current owners to move into larger, pricier homes. Move-up buyers need somebody to purchase their homes to move, he says. You need that first leg in the recovery to materialize.
Sad story of a PhD Pharmacist who earns 125k/year but cannot qualify for a mortgage to buy a home b/c of student debt Bob Willis. Bloomberg Businessweek. Student Debt is Stifling Home Sales. 2/23/12. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-23/student-debt-is-stifling-home-sales Roshell Schenck has a Ph.D. in pharmacy and earns $125,000 a year. Yet, because she has more than $110,000 in student loan debt, counselors have told her she cant qualify for a mortgage. Id love to buy and can afford to buy, says the 28-year-old graduate of Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Erie, Pa. With lenders scrutinizing college loans more closely than in previous years, its almost impossible for borrowers such as Schenck to get approved for mortgages. My debt is crushing my chances of purchasing a home.
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A2: Hurts private loans companies; they still saw profits increase b/w 03-07 Kim Clark. US News & World Report. New Hope for Debtors Struggling with Student Loans. 5/3/10. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/studentloan/articles/2010/05/03/new-hope-for-debtors-struggling-with-student-loans Supporters of the bankruptcy reform proposal say giving unemployed and struggling Americans a chance to start fresh will have little downside. Since interest rates didn't drop when the law was changed in lenders' favor in 2005, there's no justification for them to jump if the law is changed back, the supporters argue. The Institute for College Access and Success noted, for example, that Sallie Mae's profit margin on private student loans increased every year from 2003 through 2007before and after the law change. TICAS president Lauren Asher noted that lenders can wipe their own books clean of bad debts by simply writing them off. But then the banks sell those bad debts to collection agencies, who don't give students the same kind of chance to start fresh. "People who borrowed for college and played by the rules deserve basic consumer protections and fair treatment when they hit hard times," she says.
A2: Loans are already capped at 10% of income; thats only if you can persuade a bankruptcy court, which costs thousands of dollars, and faces dismal odds Kim Clark. US News & World Report. New Hope for Debtors Struggling with Student Loans. 5/3/10. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/studentloan/articles/2010/05/03/new-hope-for-debtors-struggling-with-student-loans Deanne Loonin, director of the Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project for the National Consumer Law Center, says those who try for relief in bankruptcy court face dismal odds. Bankruptcy courts require such debtors to go to a full hearing, which typically costs thousands of dollars in attorney bills on top of the standard bankruptcy fees. Since people generally file for bankruptcy because they don't have any money, most can't afford the lawyers' fees to challenge their student debts, Loonin says. The few who do manage to make it to the hearing often lose because judges often require them to "somehow prove that their future is as hopeless as their present," which is "nearly impossible," says Loonin.
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The Government loses 5.8 billion if it extends the lower interest rates Jennifer Liberto. CNN Money. Student Loan Rate Hike: What You Need to Know. 5/24/12. http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/24/pf/college/student_loans/index.htm If Congress does nothing, the cost to students borrowing the maximum $23,000 in subsidized loans is an extra $5,000 over a 10-year repayment period. The cost to the federal government to extend the lower interest rate is $5.8 billion, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Keeping interest rates low just passes the debt back on to future generations including these college students, (b/c even if they dont have to pay it back as an interest rate, those students will have to pay for it through lost social services or increased taxes) William J Bennett (CNN Contributor). CNN Money. Dont Extend Low Interest Rates on Student Loans. 5/3/12. http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/03/opinion/bennett-student-loans/index.html If Congress continues to subsidize low interest rates, they are handing the problem, and the mountain of debt, to future generations. In fact, they are passing on the debt to the very group of people they are trying to help: college students. With the federal government backing low interest rates, colleges have no incentive to lower tuition. Instead, the rates should be variable and tied to the market, not set by the government. The real problem here is the colleges and their unholy alliance with the federal government.
Low interest rates leave no incentive for colleges to lower tuition the rates should be variable and tied to the market, not set by the government, so that colleges have to compete to be affordable, rather than take advantage of taxpayer dollars William J Bennett (CNN Contributor). CNN Money. Dont Extend Low Interest Rates on Student Loans. 5/3/12. http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/03/opinion/bennett-student-loans/index.html If Congress continues to subsidize low interest rates, they are handing the problem, and the mountain of debt, to future generations. In fact, they are passing on the debt to the very group of people they are trying to help: college students. With the federal government backing low interest rates, colleges have no incentive to lower tuition. Instead, the rates should be variable and tied to the market, not set by the government. The real problem here is the colleges and their unholy alliance with the federal government.
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Less than 60% of students finish in six years or less, and graduates is unemployed or underemployed, the college bubble is going to burst and ruin the investments/value of the loans all of these students have taken William J Bennett (CNN Contributor). CNN Money. Dont Extend Low Interest Rates on Student Loans. 5/3/12. http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/03/opinion/bennett-student-loans/index.html Here's what the president should be saying: The college system is largely failing students and taxpayers. Colleges continue to raise their prices despite record increases in federal subsidies. Between 1982 and 2007, college tuition and fees rose more than 400%(about four times the rate of inflation) Today, the average student loan debt exceeds $25,000 and total student loan debt exceeds $1 trillion. Less than 60% of college students finish college in six years or less. One out of every two college graduates today are unemployed or underemployed. The system overspends and underperforms. In 2010, total student loan debt exceeded credit card debt. It may not be long before this bubble bursts, hurting the very students who need help the most.
The default rate in 2009 was nearly 2x that of 2005, despite lower interest rates Jennifer Steinhauer and Annie Lowrey. New York Times. Student Loan Debt Becomes Election-Year Flight. 4/26/12. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/27/us/politics/student-loan-debate-becomes-election-yearfight.html?_r=1 Some Republicans have expressed concerns about allowing the rates to remain low, citing fear of default in a poor economy. The default rate for all federal student loans was 8.8 percent in the 2009 fiscal year, the latest year for which data was available; it was 4.6 percent in 2005, mirroring the rest of the economy
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Financial experts say you can easily find loans that will be no more than 10% of a recent graduates monthly income Katy Hopkins. US News & World Report. Student Loans Pack Surprising Benefits. 8/31/11. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2011/08/31/studentloans-pack-surprising-benefits/ 1. Get that degree: Financial experts say an attractive student loan payment will be no more than 10 percent of a recent graduate's gross monthly income, Walker notes. This type of loan payment, taken out under transparent repayment terms and at an amount you can realistically meet, can help you achieve otherwise financially unattainable levels of higher education. For Julie Feldman, a recent graduate of the University of MarylandCollege Park, her combination of federal, private, and interestfree loanswhile a confusing jumble of jargon, interest rates, and repayment optionswas vital to her degree.
A2: Hurting the poor; lowering interest rates will only effect middle and upper-class students, Pell Grants which go to the poorest students, are not effected William J Bennett (CNN Contributor). CNN Money. Dont Extend Low Interest Rates on Student Loans. 5/3/12. http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/03/opinion/bennett-student-loans/index.html Perhaps most important, extending the low interest rates will not lower tuition costs for the students who need it most. The Stafford Loans largely fund the tuition of middle- and upper-class students on the backs of taxpayers. Pell Grants, the federal assistance to the poorest students, should be the real focus of discussion.
The costs of this six billion dollar subsidy has done nothing to control tuition costs which rose by about $1,100 (less than the cost of not extending) for in-state students in 2011 William J Bennett (CNN Contributor). CNN Money. Dont Extend Low Interest Rates on Student Loans. 5/3/12. http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/03/opinion/bennett-student-loans/index.html Republicans need not be on the defensive. How does the president plan to pay for the $6 billion subsidy? And how will it help control tuition costs? So far it hasn't. In 2011,costs at the average public university rose more than 5% for in-state students, or about $1,100. The average tuition at public universities rose more than 8%. By comparison, the rate of inflation was 3%.
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STUDENT LOAN PAYMENTS STILL CANNOT EXCEED 15% OF INCOME NOW & 10% OF YOUR INCOME IF BORROWING AFTER 14 NOT UNMANAGBLE Kim Clark. US News & World Report. New Hope for Debtors Struggling with Student Loans. 5/3/10. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/studentloan/articles/2010/05/03/new-hope-for-debtors-struggling-with-student-loans Last summer, the federal government started allowing those with federal student loans to cap their payments below 15 percent of their income, and it promised to forgive some of the debts of public servants, and those with low incomes. Earlier this year, Congress beefed up the new "Income-Based Repayment" plan so that those who take out federal student loans after 2014 can cap their payments below 10 percent of their income.
Average student with federal loans graduates with 13,000 in debt, less than half the national average William J Bennett (CNN Contributor). CNN Money. Dont Extend Low Interest Rates on Student Loans. 5/3/12. http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/03/opinion/bennett-student-loans/index.html Furthermore, only about a third of undergraduates have subsidized Stafford Loans and the interest rates for existing loans won't be touched. The average student with Stafford Loans graduates with about $13,000 in debt, much lower than the national average of $25,000. If the current rate doubles, they would pay about $2,600 more over 10 years. The effect of doubling the rates from 3.4% to 6.8% is minute when compared to the lifetime earnings of a person with a bachelor's degree (approximately $2.27 million) to a person with just a high school diploma ($1.3 million).
Considering a bachelors degree holder earns over 1 million dollars more than a high school degree holder, the extra $2600 to increase student loans are miniscule William J Bennett (CNN Contributor). CNN Money. Dont Extend Low Interest Rates on Student Loans. 5/3/12. http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/03/opinion/bennett-student-loans/index.html Furthermore, only about a third of undergraduates have subsidized Stafford Loans and the interest rates for existing loans won't be touched. The average student with Stafford Loans graduates with about $13,000 in debt, much lower than the national average of $25,000. If the current rate doubles, they would pay about $2,600 more over 10 years. The effect of doubling the rates from 3.4% to 6.8% is minute when compared to the lifetime earnings of a person with a bachelor's degree (approximately $2.27 million) to a person with just a high school diploma ($1.3 million).
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WITHOUT EXTENSION, AVERAGE STUDENT WOULD SEE A 1,000 INCREASE OVER THE LIFE OF THEIR LOAN Lee Johnson. Gainesville Times. Federal Student Loan Interest Rate Could Double. 5/21/12. http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/67819/ If an extension is not approved, the average student could see an increase of $1,000 in interest costs over the life of the loan.
The average student with federal loans graduates with 13k of debt, and would pay an additional 2.6k with the higher interest rates Jennifer Steinhauer and Annie Lowrey. New York Times. Student Loan Debt Becomes Election-Year Flight. 4/26/12. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/27/us/politics/student-loan-debate-becomes-election-yearfight.html?_r=1 Without legislative action, the rate will snap back to 6.8 percent acting as a $1,000 tax on new college graduates entering a challenging labor market, President Obama has argued. Indeed, the average student with Stafford loans graduates with about $13,000 in debt. At a fixed 3.4 percent interest rate one of the lowest in recent decades a student would spend about $15,350 paying the loan off over 10 years. At a fixed 6.8 interest rate, that student would pay about $17,950 about $2,600 more.
THE NATIONAL AVERAGE STUDENT DEBT IS $25,000 Lee Johnson. Gainesville Times. Federal Student Loan Interest Rate Could Double. 5/21/12. http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/67819/ According to The Project on Student Debt, the average debt for a Georgia student upon graduation is $19,000. That includes all forms of loans. The national average is $25,000.
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THE DEMAND FOR STUDENT LOANS IS INCREASING (INCREASED BY 73% B/W 05 & 09) Dr Elsie Scott (President/CEO of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation). The Seattle Medium. Increase in Loan Interest Rates Defers Black Students Dreams. 5/23/12. http://www.seattlemedium.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=113722&sID=34&ItemSource=L The need for financial support, and lack thereof, has lasting impact on the educational future of our youth. Education remains cost-prohibitive for many African-Americans who have the scholastic acumen to excel and compete at the best colleges and universities across the country. But the threat of looming debt upon graduation will cause our best and brightest to defer enrollment, or worse, not matriculate at all. In the past decade, CBCF has awarded thousands of scholarships to students across the country, and every year there is an increase in the number of applicants. There need is great, but the reality is that many students simply cannot attend college without student loans, scholarships and grants. According to the March 2010, Congressional Budget Office study on the Costs and Policy Options for Federal Student Loan Programs, the demand for federal student loans is on a steady uptick. New loans increased from $56 billion in 2005 to $97 billion in 2009.
Only 1/3 of undergraduates have federal loans William J Bennett (CNN Contributor). CNN Money. Dont Extend Low Interest Rates on Student Loans. 5/3/12. http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/03/opinion/bennett-student-loans/index.html Furthermore, only about a third of undergraduates have subsidized Stafford Loans and the interest rates for existing loans won't be touched. The average student with Stafford Loans graduates with about $13,000 in debt, much lower than the national average of $25,000. If the current rate doubles, they would pay about $2,600 more over 10 years. The effect of doubling the rates from 3.4% to 6.8% is minute when compared to the lifetime earnings of a person with a bachelor's degree (approximately $2.27 million) to a person with just a high school diploma ($1.3 million).
2/3 of American undergraduate students require student loans Katy Hopkins. US News & World Report. Student Loans Pack Surprising Benefits. 8/31/11. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2011/08/31/studentloans-pack-surprising-benefits/ For two thirds of American undergraduates, student loans are a necessity.
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Law enforcement officials should be permitted to use GPS tracking devices to monitor suspects without a search warrant. Notes:
The affirmative will want to prove first that there are no significant differences between using a GPS tracking device and a police squadron to track someone other than purely the number of men that need to be committed to a human-based tracking, rather than a technological one. The negative has a preponderance of evidence suggesting otherwise, but most sources arguing that are, on face value, ill fitted to make claims about the efficiency of police forces (The ACLU has much to say about how police could never do what a GPS does, but offer no primary sources for their claims, and so how they came to the conclusions, along with many other advocates, that a GPS is somehow far superior to the degree of legal distinction to a police squad that tracks someone, remains to be seen). Assuming you can use good defense against the negatives sources and know what the courts have actually ruled, youll have command over the rights issue. Youll then want to move onto utility, where you basically argue the benefits of tracking compared to actual squad usage which strains resources and often times puts police officers in harms way when all they need is a GPS device to do their job. That is a much safer, easier, and less straining option that still (arguably) stays within the governments rights. The next option for an affirmative, if youre feeling gutsy, is to argue that warrantless GPS tracking prevents the use of other tracking technologies (think cell phones and emails) that the government could access. Whether or not these would be classified as part of GPS is debatable the technology that can track cell phones does not necessarily have to be based upon GPS tracking, and there are multiple other devices which can be used by police officers for tracking and instantaneous information, which would be far worse and would infringe far more upon our rights. Since we can only decide in the scope of the debate, which leaves us with the option of forcing the police to use things like cell phones or to use GPS trackers, than the option of a GPS tracker (which, given the Supreme courts recent ruling that does not allow for GPS trackers, and the prosecutors response to instead use cell-phone tracking data, seem to be regarded as two distinct options), which is less morally wrong, becomes the best option to preserve rights.
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The negative has the preponderance of evidence and arguments about how, in a variety of ways, the 4th amendment is violated through GPS tracking. An interesting and possible framework to set up, to further help with arguments about the fourth amendment, is to view the round not just on the scope of GPS tracking, but the way the Supreme Court views these types of decisions as rules about the 4th amendment and technology in general, that will be applied as and used to set precedent for the future cases involving technological attacks on the 4th amendment. Such a framework allows you to garnish far more impacts, if you feel like going for a larger scale argument. In terms of rights, there is clear evidence that GPS tracking does violate fundamental rights to privacy (when not in public ie your home) and fair personal expectations of privacy (when you are in public). The ability to augment senses with technology does not uphold when a human would be otherwise incapable of ascertaining information which a large quantity of evidence suggests is the case when comparing GPS tracking to the capabilities of real human officers, and the courts have ruled that just because information can be found in ways that are legal, it is not justified to gather than information in an unjustified way. The way you frame the arguments you choose to run is entirely up to you as there are many competing and valid options that would allow a strong debater to easily win on the negative side.
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Information about the tracking process using GPS Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf Depending on the needs of the investigation, members of the task force sometimes monitored the GPS device live and other times reviewed its stored data. J.A. 107-108. The task force could track the cars individual trips as well as identify patterns in the cars daily routine. For instance, it could note repeated visits to particular locations. Over the 28-day period during which the GPS device was installed, the task force had constant access to the cars location, except during a five-day period after the GPS devices batteries had run out. During this period, task force members visited Joness car to install new batteries. J.A. 111.
Once you operate in public, where you know people can see you and surveillance technology exists, then you wave any sort of expectation of privacy you might otherwise have Nina Totenberg. National Public Radio. High Court: Warrant Needed for GPS Tracking Device. 1/23/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/23/145656654/top-court-police-need-warrant-for-gps-tracking "Once you choose to operate and drive out in the public, and knowing as we all do that there is various surveillance equipment out there, you kind of waive any sort of expectation of privacy you might otherwise have," Kelley said.
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If the monitoring were done by humans, it wouldnt be an issue its literally the device that the court is ruling about Carrie Johnson. National Public Radio. FBI Still Struggling With Supreme Courts GPS Ruling. 3/21/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/03/21/149011887/fbi-still-struggling-with-supreme-courts-gps-ruling "The court essentially is saying that you have an expectation of privacy even though if it was done by humans there would be no violation," Weissmann says. "But because it's done by machines, it is." In 1983 the supreme court ruled that using tracking devices (as long as they were installed in a public place) was fine because nothing in the 4th amendment prohibits police from augmenting their natural senses with enhancements and technology (as long as they do not exceed natural senses) Rob Cerullo. Police Chief Magazine. GPS Tracking Devices and the Constitution. January 2004. http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=179&iss ue_id=12004 In United States v. Knotts the Supreme Court considered in 1983 whether a court order is necessary for the installation and monitoring of a bird dog tracking device in a public location.1 In Knotts law enforcement agents placed the tracking device inside a container of chloroform that they tracked to a methamphetamine lab. The Court ruled that the installation and monitoring of the device in a public place was not a violation of the defendant's rights, because "nothing in the Fourth Amendment prohibited the police from augmenting the sensory faculties bestowed upon them at birth with such enhancement as science and technology afforded them in this case." After Knotts it was clear that law enforcement officers do not need a court order to install or monitor that type of tracking device on a suspect's vehicle as long as it is located in a public place.
GPS tracking does not vary significantly from trailing deemed legal in previous cases, (only major difference is efficiency) Jessie Koehler. Berkeley Technology Law Review. GPS Tracking: United States v Jones. 11/28/11. http://btlj.org/2011/11/28/gps-tracking-united-states-v-jones/ The extremely polarized arguments put forth by counsel for both sides contain problematic implications that the Justices quickly seized on. On the one hand, the Justices expressed their unease with a blanket acceptance of law enforcements ability to track citizens indefinitely and without a warrant. On the other, the court also recognized that such GPS tracking did not vary significantly from the suspect tailing deemed legal in previous casesapart from the added efficiency that GPS units provide.
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It takes a team of six to eight agents to do what a monitor would do Carrie Johnson. National Public Radio. FBI Still Struggling With Supreme Courts GPS Ruling. 3/21/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/03/21/149011887/fbi-still-struggling-with-supreme-courts-gps-ruling Before the high court decision, the FBI would have deployed electronic trackers to monitor those people. Now, teams of six or eight agents have to watch them, taxing the agency's resources.
If you were to require probable cause for every technique of surveillence, then you make it very hard next to impossible for law enforcement Carrie Johnson. National Public Radio. FBI Still Struggling With Supreme Courts GPS Ruling. 3/21/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/03/21/149011887/fbi-still-struggling-with-supreme-courts-gps-ruling "And the problem with that is that a search warrant requires probable cause to be shown and many of these techniques are things that you use in order to establish probable cause," Weissmann says. "If you require probable cause for every technique, then you are making it very very hard for law enforcement."
A2: Courts ruled; The court actually ruled you could use a GPS without a warrant, just not for months at a time Carrie Johnson. National Public Radio. FBI Still Struggling With Supreme Courts GPS Ruling. 3/21/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/03/21/149011887/fbi-still-struggling-with-supreme-courts-gps-ruling A concurring opinion by Justice Samuel Alito said that a month was too long to track a suspect by GPS without a warrant, but two days would probably be fine. That leaves a big gap for law enforcement to figure out on its own.
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Cell Phones (and other tech) are a Way Worse (in terms of rights) Alternative to GPS Cell Phones release tracking information every eight seconds to a cell tower Carrie Johnson. National Public Radio. FBI Still Struggling With Supreme Courts GPS Ruling. 3/21/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/03/21/149011887/fbi-still-struggling-with-supreme-courts-gps-ruling
You might be surprised to know it but every eight seconds or so, your cellphone can transmit information to a local cell tower signaling where you are.
Cell phones are even more intrusive than trackers, since you always have one on you Carrie Johnson. National Public Radio. FBI Still Struggling With Supreme Courts GPS Ruling. 3/21/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/03/21/149011887/fbi-still-struggling-with-supreme-courts-gps-ruling
Crump, of the ACLU, says that's a lot more intrusive than putting a tracker on someone's car. "After all, a cellphone is something you carry with you wherever you go," Crump says. "And we don't think the government should be accessing that type of information without a really good reason, which they can demonstrate by getting a warrant from a judge."
Cell Phones can be used instead; since the court ruled against permitting evidence from GPS monitoring, prosecutors are retrying with cell phone data (just moves from one form of monitoring to an even more intrusive one) Carrie Johnson. National Public Radio. FBI Still Struggling With Supreme Courts GPS Ruling. 3/21/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/03/21/149011887/fbi-still-struggling-with-supreme-courts-gps-ruling As for Antoine Jones, whose case made Supreme Court history, prosecutors say they'll try him again maybe using some of the location data from his cellphone.
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Past decisions have already set precedent to allow police to get information without a warrant from phone companies, banks, email providers Nina Totenberg. National Public Radio. High Court: Warrant Needed for GPS Tracking Device. 1/23/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/23/145656654/top-court-police-need-warrant-for-gps-tracking And Justice Sotomayor, while signing on to the Scalia opinion, suggested that the entire framework used in the past may well be "ill-suited to the digital age." She said that because people now "reveal a great deal of information about themselves in order to carry out mundane tasks," it may be time to reconsider past decisions that allow police to get information without a warrant from third parties like phone companies or banks or email providers.
Smartphones disclose locations and email contacts are recorded by internet providers Nina Totenberg. National Public Radio. High Court: Warrant Needed for GPS Tracking Device. 1/23/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/23/145656654/top-court-police-need-warrant-for-gps-tracking
Smartphones, for instance, can disclose an individual's location unless the internal locator devices are turned off, and email contacts are similarly recorded by providers. But today's ruling provided no definitive answers as to whether the government must obtain a warrant for access to either.
A2: The recent ruling prohibits cell phone tracking (so you cant run that on aff); the ruling did leave open other forms of surveillence Nina Totenberg. National Public Radio. High Court: Warrant Needed for GPS Tracking Device. 1/23/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/23/145656654/top-court-police-need-warrant-for-gps-tracking "It leaves open how the Fourth Amendment apples to cellular phones," says George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr, an expert in the field of technology and privacy. "It leaves out how the Fourth Amendment applies to email. It leaves open all these questions of high-tech surveillance that just don't happen to involve a trespass onto somebody's property."
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Dont even need cell phone companies can use personal devices that track cell phones by hijacking their signals Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf Increasingly, law enforcement agents do not even need the cooperation of cell phone companies to track the location of cell phones. They can now do so on their own using devices variously known as triggerfish or stingrays. Department of Justice, Electronic Surveillance Manual 171 (2005), available at http://www.justice.gov/criminal/foia/docs/elec-surmanual.pdf. These devices imitate phone towers, forcing cell phones to register their location so that they can be tracked. Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Stingray Phone Tracker Fuels Constitutional Clash, Wall St. J., Sept. 22, 2011. They can also be used to identify all of the phones in a given location. Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, How Stingray Devices Work, Wall St. J. Digits Blog (Sept. 21, 2011), available athttp://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/09/21/howstingraydevices-work.
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Neg
Framework: Have to look at issues on 4th amendment by looking not only at what has been, but what may be what the implications of your decision allow and how they affect the 4th Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf In his dissent, Justice Brandeis recognized that the march of technological progress would not end with the telephone. This insight shaped his view of how to interpret the Fourth Amendment. He wrote, *c+lauses guaranteeing to the individual protection against specific abuses of power, must have a . . . capacity of adaptation to a changing world. Id. at 472. The alternative, Justice Brandeis believed, was to allow the Fourth Amendment to weaken and become increasingly marginalized, a result that would place the liberty of every man in the hands of every petty officer. Id. at 474 (internal quotation marks omitted). He wrote that in the application of a Constitution, our contemplation cannot be only of what has been, but of what may be. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). More concretely, Justice Brandeis recognized that one of the core values protected by the Constitution is the right to exchange thoughts in private and that *t+here is, in essence, no difference between the sealed letter and the private telephone message. Both, in his view, were entitled to constitutional protection. Id. at 475.
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BidRoundBriefs Supplemental Debate Briefs NFL2012 Search of Property

Because these devices have to be placed on property, they are inherentlyat a minimum a search of property Nina Totenberg. National Public Radio. High Court: Warrant Needed for GPS Tracking Device. 1/23/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/23/145656654/top-court-police-need-warrant-for-gps-tracking While the court's decision was unanimous, its reasoning was not, nor did the justices line up along the usual liberal/conservative lines. Justice Antonin Scalia, usually classified as a conservative, wrote the court's opinion, declaring that because the tracking device was physically placed on Jones' property, "at a minimum" it was a search within the original meaning of the Constitution's ban on searches of property without a warrant.
The courts have ruled that when the government uses a device that is not in general public use it is a search and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant Rob Cerullo. Police Chief Magazine. GPS Tracking Devices and the Constitution. January 2004. http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=179&iss ue_id=12004 In Kyllo law enforcement agents used a thermal imaging device to monitor the heat signature of a house where they suspected marijuana was being grown. The Court ruled that use of the device without a warrant was unreasonable: "When the government uses a device that is not in general public use to explore details of the home that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion, the surveillance is a search and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant." One could argue that installing and monitoring a GPS tracking device necessitates a court order, because the device "is not in general public use." But because the use of a GPS tracking device in a public area does not intrude upon homeplace privacy, and because it only does better what a traditional bird dog already did, it is likely that the Supreme Court will apply Knotts and Karo. In that event, it would not require a court order for the installation and monitoring of a GPS tracking device as long as the vehicle is and remains in a public area.
Because the probability that anyone (the public) will knowingly observe the totality of someones movements over a longer period of time (like a month), rather than just one trip, is practically nil, gathering that information becomes a search of information not readily available to the public especially because having all of that information together collectively, rather than fragmented, is likely to reveal far more than the publics knowledge would be able to offer 99 | P a g e

Jessie Koehler. Berkeley Technology Law Review. GPS Tracking: United States v Jones. 11/28/11. http://btlj.org/2011/11/28/gps-tracking-united-states-v-jones/ The courts key argument was that the totality of Joness movement tracked by the GPS device over the four weeks indeed constituted private information not exposed to the public. The court reasoned that unlike ones movements during a single journey, the whole of ones movements over the course of a month is not actually exposed to the public because the likelihood anyone will observe all those movements is effectively nil. *And+, the whole of ones movements is not exposed constructively even though each individual movement is exposed, because that whole reveals moresometimes a great deal morethan does the sum of its parts.Id. at 558.
The issue is that once a car or vehicle enters private property (withdrawn from public view) monitoring it infringes upon reasonable expectations of privacy and would constitute a fourth amendment violation Rob Cerullo. Police Chief Magazine. GPS Tracking Devices and the Constitution. January 2004. http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=179&iss ue_id=12004 But Knotts left open the question of whether the same investigators could lawfully monitor the same device if the vehicle on which it had been installed left the public roadway and entered into private property. The Court addressed that question the following year in United States v. Karo.2 In that case, Drug Enforcement Administration agents obtained a court order for the installation and monitoring of a bird dog tracking device in a 50-gallon drum of ether that they tracked to a residence where they found a cocaine lab. On appeal the defendant claimed that the initial court order was invalid and that the evidence seized inside the residence was the fruit of the illegal monitoring of the device. The Supreme Court ruled that the government did not need a warrant to install and monitor the device initially, but it did need a warrant to continue to monitor the device after it entered a private residence. The Court reasoned that the "indiscriminate monitoring of property that has been withdrawn from public view would present far too serious a threat to privacy interests in the home to escape entirely some sort of Fourth Amendment oversight."
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Expectations for protecting reasonable privacy do not include checking the undercarriage of your car for a GPS tracking device every time you go for a drive Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf Amici agree that the governments GPS tracking of Joness movements was a Fourth Amendment search.3The information gathered was not knowingly exposed to the public. While Americans are obligated to take ordinary precautions to protect their privacy, they are surely not obligated to examine the undercarriages of their vehicles for covertly-installed GPS devices every time they go for a drive. The fact that discrete portions of ones life may be observed by friends, neighbors, and passersby surely does not mean that expect that the government will maintain a comprehensive, collated, and possibly permanent record of their movements each time they get into their cars. Pet.App. 29a (*t+he difference is not one of degree but of kind). Moreover, the type of information gathered by GPS devices exposes patterns of activity that are independently entitled to constitutional protection every trip to a political meeting, medical appointment, or house of worship. This Court should hold that location data of the kind at issue here is properly considered private because it is not knowingly exposed to the publicjust as the telephone call in Katz was not knowingly exposed to the publicand conclude that law enforcement agents may access it only by demonstrating probable cause and obtaining a warrant.
Technology is different from humans and cant just be used as augmenting human capabilities
Using a technology necessary for living does not mean you forfeit your privacy interests (cannot take advantage of a use of technology) Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf The hundreds of millions of Americans who choose to drive or use cell phones have not forfeited their privacy interest in their movements merely by availing themselves of technologies so commonplace that it would be difficult to live in society without them. Concluding that a person has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements because they are capable of being ascertained by others would divest Americans of privacy they have long enjoyed and continue to desire.
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There is a significant difference between what a GPS can do and the almost-never occurrence of 24hour tracking by law enforcement Jessie Koehler. Berkeley Technology Law Review. GPS Tracking: United States v Jones. 11/28/11. http://btlj.org/2011/11/28/gps-tracking-united-states-v-jones/ Michael Dreeben, arguing on behalf of the United States, stated that the Courts past decisions authorized the ability to track citizens movements in vehicles on public roadways because they could not reasonable expect privacy while traveling in public.Id. at 20. Justice Breyer noted a significant difference between the tracking traditionally done by law enforcement agentsrarely following a suspect 24 hours a dayand what could be accomplished by GPS devices. Id. at 13.
The use of GPS allows task forces to gain a larger quantity of information, with far more details, covertly, than would be possible with human monitoring (where that type of tracking becomes impossible and the covert aspect makes you probable to be caught) Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf The task force would not have been able to obtain this comprehensive real-time and historical record of the cars movements without the aid of GPS technology. The GPS device allowed the task force to collect far more information and far more detailed information than it would have been able to collect through physical surveillance, and to collect this information more covertly and at minimal expense.
Not even the most dedicated police squad can follow a target in the manner of a GPS tracker Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf GPS devices are among the most powerful of the currently available technologies that enable the government to ascertain what would otherwise be private facts. GPS devices allow lengthy and precise tracking of a vehicles every movement, with minimal effort and expense. Not even the most dedicated police squad could follow its target in such a manner. And while this case involves law enforcement agents attaching a GPS device to the undercarriage of a car, the increased prevalence of integrated car navigation systems may soon make even this minimal legwork unnecessary. See, e.g., United States v. Coleman, No. 07-20357, 2008 WL 495323, at * 1 (E.D. Mich. Feb. 20, 2008) (discussing issuance of court order requiring car navigation company to disclose location data to law enforcement).5
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BidRoundBriefs Supplemental Debate Briefs NFL2012 Understanding the reasonable expectation of privacy
The courts have ruled in the past that people can have privacy expectations even in facts that otherwise can technically ascertain Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf In sum, the Court should not accept the governments suggestion that, when the police make observations of matters in public view, the assistance of technology does not transform the surveillance into a search. Pet. Br. 22. If in public view means ascertainable by members of the general public however different those observations may be in quality and quantity from the surveillance that the government seeks to undertakethen the governments proposed rule is in conflict with this Courts decisions recognizing that people can have privacy expectations even in facts that others can technically ascertain; it would shrink the scope of the Fourth Amendment because todays powerful technologies allow so much information about all of us to be ascertained by others; and it would destabilize constitutional privacy protection because the constantly-evolving state of technological development would dictate an ever-shrinking Fourth Amendment.
Importance of reasonable expectation standards New facial recognition systems allow you to gain all kinds of information a police officer wouldnt otherwise no (searches databases for insurance claims for drug treatment, credit ratings, lists of mortgage defaulters, etc) this is augmenting with technology but far beyond what you would reasonably expect the public to know about you Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf The governments proposed rule would have implications for other kinds of sensitive information as well. For example, facial recognition systems, too, enable the government to ascertain facts that individuals have not knowingly exposed to the public. A recent Wall Street Journal article described handheld facial recognition cameras that enable law enforcement agents to snap a picture of a face from up to five feet away, or scan a persons irises from up to six inches away, and do an immediate search to see if there is a match with a database of people with criminal records. Emily Steel & Julia Angwin, Device Raises Fear of Facial Profiling, Wall St. J., July 13, 2011, at A1. Additional databases (e.g., of people who have submitted insurance claims for drug treatment, or people who have defaulted on their mortgages) could obviously be added to the search. At $3,000 apiece, there is no meaningful financial barrier to the widespread use of these devices by law enforcement. Id. While walking around in public has always brought with it the possibility of being recognized by an acquaintance, that is very 103 | P a g e

different from having ones life history immediately available to every police officer with a fancy camera. Examples of minor things that the courts have ruled are all searches/protected by the 4th amendment Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf Between the bookends of Katz and Kyllo the Court repeatedly recognized reasonable expectations of privacy even where facts were ascertainable by others. In Bond v. United States, 529 U.S. 334, 338-39 (2000), the Court held that a police officers manipulation of a soft-sided bag on a bus luggage rack was a search, even though travelers know that other travelers have access to bags on the rack and may handle them. Travelers are not obligated to purchase hard-sided luggage to protect their belongings from the poking and prodding fingers of law enforcement agents. In Walter v. United States, 447 U.S. 649, 657-59 (1980), the Court found that an individual had a reasonable expectation of privacy that required the government to demonstrate probable cause and obtain a warrant to view his motion pictures, even though the government had lawfully come into their possession and could readily view them using a projector. And in OConnor v. Ortega, 480 U.S. 709 (1987), the Court held that a public employee can have a reasonable expectation of privacy in personal effects kept in his or her office desk and file cabinets, even though the employee knows that supervisors and colleagues have access to the employees office. Just b/c discrete portions of your life can be observed by the public does not mean you should expect the government to maintain a comprehensive permanent record of your movements everytime you get into the car the difference *between public knowledge and private surveillance+ is not one of degree but of kind Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf Amici agree that the governments GPS tracking of Joness movements was a Fourth Amendment search.3The information gathered was not knowingly exposed to the public. While Americans are obligated to take ordinary precautions to protect their privacy, they are surely not obligated to examine the undercarriages of their vehicles for covertly-installed GPS devices every time they go for a drive. The fact that discrete portions of ones life may be observed by friends, neighbors, and passersby surely does not mean that expect that the government will maintain a comprehensive, collated, and possibly permanent record of their movements each time they get into their cars. Pet.App. 29a (*t+he difference is not one of degree but of kind). Moreover, the type of information gathered by GPS devices exposes patterns of activity that are independently entitled to constitutional protectionevery trip to a political meeting, medical appointment, or house of worship. This Court should hold that location data of the kind at issue here is properly considered private because it is not knowingly exposed to the publicjust as the telephone call in Katz was not knowingly exposed to the publicand conclude 104 | P a g e

that law enforcement agents may access it only by demonstrating probable cause and obtaining a warrant. The location data and patterns you expose when being tracked (doctors appointments, worship, political meetings) is private because it is not knowingly exposed to the public Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf Amici agree that the governments GPS tracking of Joness movements was a Fourth Amendment search.3The information gathered was not knowingly exposed to the public. While Americans are obligated to take ordinary precautions to protect their privacy, they are surely not obligated to examine the undercarriages of their vehicles for covertly-installed GPS devices every time they go for a drive. The fact that discrete portions of ones life may be observed by friends, neighbors, and passersby surely does not mean that expect that the government will maintain a comprehensive, collated, and possibly permanent record of their movements each time they get into their cars. Pet.App. 29a (*t+he difference is not one of degree but of kind). Moreover, the type of information gathered by GPS devices exposes patterns of activity that are independently entitled to constitutional protectionevery trip to a political meeting, medical appointment, or house of worship. This Court should hold that location data of the kind at issue here is properly considered private because it is not knowingly exposed to the publicjust as the telephone call in Katz was not knowingly exposed to the publicand conclude that law enforcement agents may access it only by demonstrating probable cause and obtaining a warrant. Only facts knowingly exposed to others are divested of constitutional protection allowing things that are merely in public view (with the augmentation of technology) dramatically shrink 4 th amendment protections and make it easy to ascertain important and private facts. Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf This Court has never held that all facts that are capable of being ascertained by others have been knowingly expose*d+ to the public, Katz, 389 U.S. at 351, and therefore devoid of constitutional protection. The governments proposal that, when the police make observations of matters in public view, the assistance of technology does not transform the surveillance into a search, Pet. Br. 22, does not fairly address the issue presented in this case. It wrongly assumes an expansive reading of what is in public viewone that is out of step with this Courts prior decisions, which have held that only facts knowingly exposed to others are divested of constitutional protection. Respondent did not knowingly expose a recorded collection of all his movements, for nearly a month, to the public. To accept the governments argument would dramatically shrink the scope of the Fourth Amendment because todays technologies make it easy to ascertain facts that individuals reasonably prefer and intend to keep private.
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BidRoundBriefs Supplemental Debate Briefs NFL2012 Larger/broader impacts

Allowing warrantless GPS would shrink the scope of the 4th amendment, as constantlyevolvingtechnological development would dictate an ever shrinking Fourth Amendment Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf In sum, the Court should not accept the governments suggestion that, when the police make observations of matters in public view, the assistance of technology does not transform the surveillance into a search. Pet. Br. 22. If in public view means ascertainable by members of the general public however different those observations may be in quality and quantity from the surveillance that the government seeks to undertakethen the governments proposed rule is in conflict with this Courts decisions recognizing that people can have privacy expectations even in facts that others can technically ascertain; it would shrink the scope of the Fourth Amendment because todays powerful technologies allow so much information about all of us to be ascertained by others; and it would destabilize constitutional privacy protection because the constantly-evolving state of technological development would dictate an ever-shrinking Fourth Amendment.
Allowing GPS tracking would allow the government to use cell phones as an instrument of state surveillance to be activated at the unsupervised whim of any law enforcement officer Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf GPS technology may be used in even more intrusive ways. Tracking cars is an imperfect way of tracking people. Cellular telephones are a better proxy because many people carry their cell phones with them wherever they go, in private as well as public spaces. There are now more than 302 million active cell phone subscriber accounts in the United States.6The latest statistics indicate that 26.6% of households no longer even maintain a landline. Id. The governments proposed rule would effectively turn each of these cell phones into an instrument of state surveillance to be activated at the unsupervised whim of any law enforcement officer.
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If its ok to have no warrants, then youd have to be ok with the police putting tracking devices on all of the supreme court justices cars and tracking them around for a month with no warrants (and the same would apply to your judges within the round) Jessie Koehler. Berkeley Technology Law Review. GPS Tracking: United States v Jones. 11/28/11. http://btlj.org/2011/11/28/gps-tracking-united-states-v-jones/ Speaking to the practical effect of a reinstatement of Jones conviction, Chief Justice Roberts asked of the counsel for the United States So your answer is yes, you could tomorrow decide that you put a GPS device on every one of our cars, follow us for a month; no problem under the Constitution? Id. at 10.
Without warrants, the police could monitor literally anyone for any amount of time, anywhere, allowing for literal around-the-clock surveillance of their activities Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf GPS technology provides law enforcement agents with a powerful and inexpensive method of tracking individuals over an extensive period of time and an unlimited expanse of space as they traverse public and private areas. Unless this Court concludes that GPS tracking is a Fourth Amendment search, any individuals movements could be subject to remote monitoring, and permanent recording, at the sole and unfettered discretion of any police officer. Without judicial oversight, the police could track unlimited numbers of people for days, weeks, or months at a time. Americans could never be confident that they were free from round-the-clock surveillance of their activities. With a network of satellites constantly feeding data to a remote computer, police could, at any instant, determine an individuals current or past movements and the times and locations that he or she crossed paths with other GPS-tracked persons.
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Some groups the police might monitor freely without warrants: disfavored political organizations, congregants of a place of worship, etc. (think of the occupy movement and the brash reaction of police officers to protestors after receiving generous contributions from banks) Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf With technology that is already available, the police could monitor the movements of all members of disfavored political organizations, or all congregants at particular places of worship. Under the governments submission, the police could engage in this surveillance even if the targeted individuals were completely law abiding and presented no reasonable ground for any suspicion. Moreover, they could engage in this surveillance without judicial oversight of any kind.
The government could target completely law-abiding people who present no suspicion whatsoever (which would otherwise be harassment) Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf With technology that is already available, the police could monitor the movements of all members of disfavored political organizations, or all congregants at particular places of worship. Under the governments submission, the police could engage in this surveillance even if the targeted individuals were completely law abiding and presented no reasonable ground for any suspicion. Moreover, they could engage in this surveillance without judicial oversight of any kind.
The government knowingly acknowledges it will use this on innocents with no probable cause (suspicion) Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf This Court has never suggested that such surveillance is beyond the concern of the Fourth Amendment. See United States v. Knotts, 460 U.S. 276 (1983). Yet, the government candidly acknowledges that it wishes to use GPS technology to gather information to establish probable cause, Pet.Br. at 50 (emphasis in original), rather than to deploy it after probable cause has been established and a warrant has issued.
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If we accept that anything that can be monitored or overheard by augmenting senses or the public is ok, then telephone calls in public booths can be hijacked by external wiretaps or overheard by passerby the test is reasonable expectations of privacy/public knowledge, not possibility of public awareness Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf The government seeks to justify its position by arguing that no reasonable expectation of privacy attaches to information that is capable of being ascertained by others, because such information has been knowingly expose*d+ to the public. Pet. Br. 18-19 (quoting Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967)). But not all information that is capable of being ascertained by others has been knowingly exposed to the public. Indeed, if the Court had accepted the governments equation in Katz, the Court would have been obligated to conclude that even the content of telephone calls warranted no Fourth Amendment protection, because a call made from a public phone booth may be monitored by an external wiretap or overheard by passersby. The Court did not endorse the governments reasoning in Katz, and it has not endorsed it since.
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BidRoundBriefs Supplemental Debate Briefs NFL2012 A2: Makes it impossible for prosecutors/police
A2: would ruin prosecution; In most cases, judicial approval is sought anyways, so its not like theres this huge load of new warrants needed Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf With the assistance of cell phone companies, law enforcement agents already track cell phones in real time or check on their past locations by obtaining records cell phones companies keep. According to the Department of Justice, Verizon stores the past locations of its customers for one year while AT&T keeps records from July 2008. Department of Justice, Retention Periods of Major U.S. Cellular Service Providers (Aug. 2010). In most circumstances, this surveillance is judicially approved, but under the governments proposed rule, it could take place without judicial oversight.7
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BidRoundBriefs Supplemental Debate Briefs NFL2012 A2: You make your information public when you leave
The 4th amendment is about people, not places you have a right to privacy and protection from search outside of your home as well as inside it Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf In Katz, a majority of the Court, referencing the values protected by the Fourth Amendment, concluded that the government must obtain a warrant based on probable cause before eavesdropping on a telephone conversation. 389 U.S. at 351. In what has become a cornerstone of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, the Court wrote: [T]he Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected.
The courts have, in the past, exposed a difference between what a person knowingly exposes to the public (no warrant needed) and what he reasonably seeks to keep private (need a warrant) Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf Katz decoupled violation of a persons Fourth Amendment rights from trespassory violation of his property. Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27, 32 (2001).4Instead, the Court drew a dichotomy between *w+hat a person knowingly exposes to the public, on the one hand, and what he seeks to preserve as private, on the other. 389 U.S. at 351. Justice Harlans concurrence posited that a Fourth Amendment search occurs when the government violates a subjective expectation of privacy that society recognizes as reasonable. Kyllo, 533 U.S. at 33 (citing Katz, 389 U.S. at 361).
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A2: Could do surveillance either way; The fact that information can be achieved by other means (those that dont violate the 4th) doesnt mean that you can use methods that do invade privacy/the 4th amendment Supreme Court of the United States. Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of the Nations Capital as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ACLU-Jones.pdf In Kyllo, the Court again rejected the proposition that information that is ascertainable by others has by definition been knowingly exposed to the public. 533 U.S. at 35. The Court held that the use of a thermal imaging device to measure heat emanating from a home was a search, even though heat that has escaped from a building is ascertainable by others without invading or even touching the house. Id. at 40. Homeowners need not swaddle their interior rooms with insulation to manifest an expectation that the heat-generating activities in their homes will not be subject to warrantless searches. While the dissent in Kyllo argued that there had been no search because the ordinary use of the senses can in some circumstances allow a neighbor to gauge the heat radiating from a building, for example by observing snow melt patterns, id. at 43, the majority found this to be quite irrelevant, id. at 35 n.2. The fact that equivalent information could sometimes be obtained by other means, the Court wrote, does not make lawful the use of means that violate the Fourth Amendment. Id. In short, the Court was not willing to approve the warrantless use of technology to obtain information about individuals simply because that information could in some circumstances be ascertained by others.
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A2: IT was unanimous/personal property rational; four of the justices agreed that makes no sense and disregards a half-century of Supreme Court doctrine Nina Totenberg. National Public Radio. High Court: Warrant Needed for GPS Tracking Device. 1/23/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/23/145656654/top-court-police-need-warrant-for-gps-tracking And four justices, led by the usually conservative Justice Samuel Alito, said the property rationale makes no sense and disregards a half-century of Supreme Court doctrine. To approach the issue as a question of trespass on private property, said Alito, is simply "unwise." What matters, he said, is the reasonable expectation of privacy in a modern world.
A2: Framework: should look at impact on other forms of surveillance as well; the recent supreme court decision did not look at other forms of surveillence (like cell phone) Nina Totenberg. National Public Radio. High Court: Warrant Needed for GPS Tracking Device. 1/23/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/23/145656654/top-court-police-need-warrant-for-gps-tracking "It leaves open how the Fourth Amendment apples to cellular phones," says George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr, an expert in the field of technology and privacy. "It leaves out how the Fourth Amendment applies to email. It leaves open all these questions of high-tech surveillance that just don't happen to involve a trespass onto somebody's property."
A2: Would ruin other options for surveillance; the supreme court already requires warrants for GPS tracking and that decision did not effect other high-tech surveillance techniques Nina Totenberg. National Public Radio. High Court: Warrant Needed for GPS Tracking Device. 1/23/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/23/145656654/top-court-police-need-warrant-for-gps-tracking David Kelley, who served as the top federal prosecutor in New York City during the Bush administration, said he was not surprised by the court's ruling. He said most federal prosecutors had long assumed they needed a court-authorized warrant to attach a GPS tracking device to a car. But beyond that, he said there is nothing in Monday's opinion to prevent high-tech surveillance techniques without a warrant.
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A2: Framework: need to look at impact on other surveillance technologies; when the supreme court ruled on GPS tracking it didnt offer anything to prevent other techniques Nina Totenberg. National Public Radio. High Court: Warrant Needed for GPS Tracking Device. 1/23/12. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/23/145656654/top-court-police-need-warrant-for-gps-tracking David Kelley, who served as the top federal prosecutor in New York City during the Bush administration, said he was not surprised by the court's ruling. He said most federal prosecutors had long assumed they needed a court-authorized warrant to attach a GPS tracking device to a car. But beyond that, he said there is nothing in Monday's opinion to prevent high-tech surveillance techniques without a warrant.
A2: 1983 decision said it was ok; the court ruled the installation is fine, but you need a warrant to continue to monitor a device after it enters a private residence Rob Cerullo. Police Chief Magazine. GPS Tracking Devices and the Constitution. January 2004. http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=179&iss ue_id=12004 But Knotts left open the question of whether the same investigators could lawfully monitor the same device if the vehicle on which it had been installed left the public roadway and entered into private property. The Court addressed that question the following year in United States v. Karo.2 In that case, Drug Enforcement Administration agents obtained a court order for the installation and monitoring of a bird dog tracking device in a 50-gallon drum of ether that they tracked to a residence where they found a cocaine lab. On appeal the defendant claimed that the initial court order was invalid and that the evidence seized inside the residence was the fruit of the illegal monitoring of the device. The Supreme Court ruled that the government did not need a warrant to install and monitor the device initially, but it did need a warrant to continue to monitor the device after it entered a private residence. The Court reasoned that the "indiscriminate monitoring of property that has been withdrawn from public view would present far too serious a threat to privacy interests in the home to escape entirely some sort of Fourth Amendment oversight."
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Resolved: The U.N. should Admit Palestine as a Member State Notes:
The best strategy for the affirmative is to start by arguing that making Palestine a full-member state will ultimately lead to peace or at least is a step in the right direction. The status quo is no talking on either side, and as a result, no chance for peace. Given that the current Palestinian government is the most peaceful weve ever seen, this is the best opportunity for Israeli Palestinian peaceful negotiations, but those wont happen if we leave it just up to the two nations bilaterally. Thus, a platform to stage talks under the watchful eye of the United Nations becomes pertinent to a successful peace talk. At the very least, letting Palestine into the UN will prompt Israel to engage the Palestinian people, or view them as a political entity that, if they do not soon come to an agreement with, may end up receiving recognition and statehood on its own terms and against Israels wishes (something along the lines of Darfur & South Sudan). The other benefits are being able to try both Israel and Palestine, which committed human rights abuses. Depending on your framework, you can easily weigh things like justice as the most important and the inherent justice that would come from being able to try Palestine as well as giving Palestine the ability to raise charges against Israel, could be enough to win the round. The negative has the job to show that making Palestine a full member state could do more harm than good. Israel stands staunchly opposed to the idea, and has flexed its diplomatic muscle, much to the detriment of the Palestinian people, against such action in the past. Given the ability for Israel to freeze the assets of Palestinians, as well as the undue influence it has over the Western world (and their funds to Palestine), Israel stands in a position where it has, and could once again, inflict potentially destabilizing economic damage to the Palestinian government. Considering the risk of conflict and hightension, Israel seems more likely to retaliate against Palestine than to be willing to come peacefully talk with them in front of the United Nations especially considering the demands on both sides seem unlikely to be met by the opposing nation. Thus, the potential for peace talks is at the very least a wash, and more likely to do harm to the Palestinian nation and destabilize it, along with sparking conflict, which would turn the affirmatives first major peace of offense. The second affirmative claim will be the benefits of the ICC and other international treaties. This is also, at best, a wash for the affirmative. Palestine can easily gain access to most of these treaties as a non-member observer state, and as long as Palestine is not a nation, human rights atrocities committed under what is technically Israeli-occupied territory are still the responsibility of Israel, and as a result Israel can still be tried in the status quo for whatever atrocities it commits. The question isnt whether they can be tried, but whether the UN will actually bring charges against the Israeli nation (and that question exists with or without a recognition of statehood to Palestine). The benefits of being able to pursue investigations against Palestine seem rather small when one considers that Hamas is a non-state actor meaning that the ICC can currently attempt to file charges against them (although Hamas would undoubtedly refuse to show up at the ICC) and that Palestine would not be held accountable for the atrocities committed by its 115 | P a g e

people under the banner of Hamas. Thus, admitting Palestine at best wil only ring charges against Israel (which is exceedingly unlikely) at great cost to the survival of the Palestinian peoples economy and government, and the peace and stability of the region. Given the unlikely probability (solvency) of the affirmatives plan/advantages and the huge disadvantages, voting negative makes the most sense.
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Basic background on the situation Palestine wants an independent state based off 1967 levels, including sovereign control of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza BBC News. Q&A: Palestinian bid for Full Membership at the UN. 9/24/11. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middleeast-13701636 The Palestinians, as represented by the Palestinian Authority, have long sought to establish an independent, sovereign state in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza - occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six Day War. However, two decades of on-and-off peace talks have failed to produce a deal. The latest round of negotiations broke down a year ago.
Making Palestine a member state allows them to join UN agencies and become party to international treaties like the ICC BBC News. Q&A: Palestinian bid for Full Membership at the UN. 9/24/11. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middleeast-13701636 Late last year, Palestinian officials began pursuing a new diplomatic strategy: asking individual countries to recognise an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. Now they want the UN to admit them as a full member state. Currently the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) only has observer entity status. This would have political implications and allow Palestinians to join UN agencies and become party to international treaties, such as the International Criminal Court, where they could take legal action to challenge the occupation of territory by Israel. NOBODY ON EITHER SIDE IS TALKING ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED BY THEIR SUPERIORS NOT TO MEET Evelyn Leopold (Independent Reporter from the UN, former Reuters at the UN Bureau Chief). Huffington Post. Palestine at UN: What Will and What Will Not Happen. 11/9/11. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evelyn-leopold/palestinian-statehood-vote_b_1083596.html The Quartet of Middle East advisers (the United States, Russia, the European Community and the United Nations) have been trying to restart peace talks and while there is movement, no one is betting on a success. And according to Gershon Baskin of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information, no one is really talking to anyone: "With the exception of continued security cooperation at the field level, and perhaps some continued talk between those who have responsibility for day-to-day issues concerning commerce, Palestinian and Israeli officials have been instructed by their superiors not to meet." 117 | P a g e
Possible Plan: Grant new version of full-member state-status but dont allow Palestine to rectify Rome Statute (essentially dont allow them to join the ICC) Amnesty International. Q&A: Human Rights Implications of the Palestinian bid for UN Membership. 9/26/11. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/q-and-human-rights-implications-palestinian-bid-un-membership-201109-26 However, the current political manoeuvring surrounding Palestines statehood bid could also harm its ability to access the ICC. Media reports have suggested that the EU has proposed upgrading Palestine to a non-member observer state on condition that the Palestinians forgo recourse to the ICC. The EU High Representative, Catherine Ashton, has reportedly proposed creating a new status at the General Assembly which would not allow the PA to ratify the Rome Statute.
Israel illegally froze the transfers of Palestinian funds collected by Israel, as part of the Oslo agreement, and nearly caused economic collapse and a return to violence in the region Gershon Baskin (CEO of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information, columnist for The Jerusalem Post). The Jerusalem Post. Encountering Peace: Lets Not Talk? 11/7/11. http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?ID=244744&R=R1 Israeli actions influencing the US Congress to freeze support for the PA along with the illegal Israeli action of freezing the transfer of Palestinian funds collected by Israel, as part of the Oslo agreement, shake the very foundation of the Palestinian Authority and increase the risk of collapse and a return to violence.
Palestinians argue that making them a member state will push Israel to talk with them about Jerusalem, contested Jewish settlements, water and security, and precise border lines BBC News. Q&A: Palestinian bid for Full Membership at the UN. 9/24/11. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middleeast-13701636 The Palestinians argue that admission of Palestine as a full member state at the UN would strengthen their hands in peace talks with Israel especially on the final status issues that divide them: the status of Jerusalem, the fate of the Jewish settlements, the precise location of the border, the right of return of Palestinian refugees, water and security. Israel says that any upgrade of the Palestinian status at the UN is a unilateral act that would pre-empt the final status talks.
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Palestine, along with the World Bank & IMF, argue that the Palestinians have built up state institutions and area ready for statehood BBC News. Q&A: Palestinian bid for Full Membership at the UN. 9/24/11. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middleeast-13701636 The main reason is the impasse in peace talks. However, the Palestinians also argue that their UN plan fits with an agreed deadline. The Middle East Peace Quartet - the European Union, United States, Russia and UN - committed itself to the target of achieving a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict by September 2011. Last year, US President Barack Obama also expressed a hope that this deadline would be met. The Palestinian Authority Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, says that Palestinians have succeeded in building up state institutions and are ready for statehood. The World Bank and IMF have said the same. CURRENT PALESTINIAN LEADERS ARE THE MOST DEVOTED TO PEACE/AGAINST THE USE OF VIOLENCE TIME FOR ACTION IS NOW, WHETHER OR NOT ISRAEL WANTS IT Evelyn Leopold (Independent Reporter from the UN, former Reuters at the UN Bureau Chief). Huffington Post. Palestine at UN: What Will and What Will Not Happen. 11/9/11. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evelyn-leopold/palestinian-statehood-vote_b_1083596.html Saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has done little to promote a peace process, he contends Abbas and his prime minister, Salaam Fayyad, are the most "determined Palestinian leaders against the use the violence" so it is futile for Israel (and the United States Congress) to punish them: "Likewise it is also clear that the strategy of not returning to the table is equally futile and wrong. Even if the chances of reaching a comprehensive negotiated agreement at this time with this Israeli government seem close to nil, there is no longer a legitimate reason to reject talking."
Israeli & Palestinian armed forces committed war crimes during the 08-09 Gaza Conflict, and have not conducted legitimate investigations and trials to prosecute perpetrators of crimes under international law Amnesty International. Q&A: Human Rights Implications of the Palestinian bid for UN Membership. 9/26/11. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/q-and-human-rights-implications-palestinian-bid-un-membership-201109-26 Amnesty International has documented evidence that war crimes were committed by both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups during the 2008-2009 conflict in Gaza and southern Israel. The UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict concurred with this assessment. Amnesty International has concluded that both the Israeli government and the Hamas de facto administration have failed to conduct credible, independent investigations and failed to prosecute perpetrators of crimes under
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international law.
The Palestinian Authority has accepted the ICCs jurisdiction over any crimes it committed since July 2002 (meaning its just waiting for membership status and Israel, and both will be equally and fairly accountable) Amnesty International. Q&A: Human Rights Implications of the Palestinian bid for UN Membership. 9/26/11. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/q-and-human-rights-implications-palestinian-bid-un-membership-201109-26 In January 2009, the Palestinian Authority submitted a declaration accepting the ICCs jurisdiction over crimes committed on its territory since July 2002. This declaration would potentially cover all crimes committed in Gaza and southern Israel during the 2008-2009 Gaza conflict.
As long as the Palestinian declaration accepting ICC jurisdiction is valid, the ICC can prosecute them for crimes Amnesty International. Q&A: Human Rights Implications of the Palestinian bid for UN Membership. 9/26/11. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/q-and-human-rights-implications-palestinian-bid-un-membership-201109-26 The ICC Prosecutor has been considering the legal implications of this declaration since it was submitted, but no determination has yet been made on its validity. If this or any similar future declaration by the Palestinian Authority were considered valid, the ICC might be able to prosecute crimes committed during the 2008-2009 Gaza conflict.
If Palestine could sign and ratify main UN human rights treaties, the Palestinian Authority would face accountability for ongoing human rights abuses, like arbitrary arrests, torture of detainees (including Israeli soldiers), and would be monitored by the UN Amnesty International. Q&A: Human Rights Implications of the Palestinian bid for UN Membership. 9/26/11. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/q-and-human-rights-implications-palestinian-bid-un-membership-201109-26 If Palestine were to sign and ratify the main UN human rights treaties, this would strengthen efforts to pursue accountability for the serious ongoing human rights violations by the Palestinian Authority. These include arbitrary arrests, torturing and ill treating detainees, defying court orders to release detainees, and arbitrary restrictions on freedom of expression and association. As a signatory to international human rights treaties, the Palestinian Authority would be monitored by UN treaty 120 | P a g e

bodies, and would have to take steps to prevent violations.
Hamas (also would be accountable) would be charged for similar human rights abuses, and war crimes against Israel (rocket missiles into Israel and inhumane treatment of captured soldiers) Amnesty International. Q&A: Human Rights Implications of the Palestinian bid for UN Membership. 9/26/11. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/q-and-human-rights-implications-palestinian-bid-un-membership-201109-26 Since gaining control in Gaza in 2007, the Hamas de facto administration has committed similar serious abuses. It has also been responsible for executing people after unfair trials, failing to prevent Palestinian armed groups from launching indiscriminate rockets into southern Israel, which constitutes a war crime, and failing to ensure the humane treatment of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
A2: Let it happen later through Israeli agreement in the UN General Assembly; Israel will not agree unless Palestine will not go to the ICC, something Palestine refuses to relinquish (point of why theyre joining) Evelyn Leopold (Independent Reporter from the UN, former Reuters at the UN Bureau Chief). Huffington Post. Palestine at the UN: A Movable Feast Behind the Rhetoric. 9/21/11. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evelynleopold/palestine-statehood_b_974920.html In the meantime, the United States and Europeans are working on the slim chance of a deal with Israel and the Palestinians that would allow an upgrade in the status of Palestine in the U.N. General Assembly. But diplomats said Israel would need an assurance that the Palestinians would not go to the International Criminal Court, something they refused to relinquish.
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A2: non-member observer; Current observer only status has received so many increases in participation rights that it is almost identical to that of a non-member state Amnesty International. Q&A: Human Rights Implications of the Palestinian bid for UN Membership. 9/26/11. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/q-and-human-rights-implications-palestinian-bid-un-membership-201109-26 The General Assembly cannot approve an application for full UN membership without a favourable recommendation from the Security Council. However, if and when the issue comes before it, the Assembly would have several options. It could recommend upgrading Palestine to a non-member observer state, the same status currently held by the Vatican. This would not require Security Council approval and would require only a simple majority in the Assembly. However, the rights and privileges of this status are not defined, so the practical implications of obtaining it are unclear. Since the PLO was granted UN observer status in 1974, the General Assembly has progressively increased its rights of participation, which are now almost identical to those of a non-member observer state.
A2: non-member observer; The rights of a non-member observer arent clear enough to claim any legitimate changes would occur Amnesty International. Q&A: Human Rights Implications of the Palestinian bid for UN Membership. 9/26/11. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/q-and-human-rights-implications-palestinian-bid-un-membership-201109-26 The General Assembly cannot approve an application for full UN membership without a favourable recommendation from the Security Council. However, if and when the issue comes before it, the Assembly would have several options. It could recommend upgrading Palestine to a non-member observer state, the same status currently held by the Vatican. This would not require Security Council approval and would require only a simple majority in the Assembly. However, the rights and privileges of this status are not defined, so the practical implications of obtaining it are unclear. Since the PLO was granted UN observer status in 1974, the General Assembly has progressively increased its rights of participation, which are now almost identical to those of a non-member observer state.
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Neg Israel will not agree to give up the land Palestine wants almost half a million Israelis live in more than 200 settlements in those lands BBC News. Q&A: Palestinian bid for Full Membership at the UN. 9/24/11. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middleeast-13701636 The problem for the Palestinians is that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects these borders as a basis for negotiations. In May, when President Barack Obama called for border talks based broadly on 1967 lines, Mr Netanyahu described the idea as "unrealistic" and "indefensible". He says that new facts on the ground have been created since 1967: almost half a million Israelis live in more than 200 settlements and outposts in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. These settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. Mutually agreed land swaps have been discussed in previous talks as a way to overcome this problem.
Israel warns accepting Palestine will result in an end to all possible peace talks and could trigger violence in the West Bank theyve already trained their settlers to use military force if it becomes necessary BBC News. Q&A: Palestinian bid for Full Membership at the UN. 9/24/11. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middleeast-13701636 The main opposition comes from Israel. "Peace can only be achieved around the negotiating table. The Palestinian attempt to impose a settlement will not bring peace," Mr Netanyahu told a joint session of the US Congress in May. Israeli officials have warned that any UN bid could terminate the peace process. They also worry that possible Palestinian accession to the ICC could lead to the pursuit of war crimes charges at the Hague and say there is potential for rising tensions to trigger violence in the West Bank. Settlers there have received Israeli military training in preparation for this scenario.
Palestinians could easily gain access as a non-member observer state, like the Vatican, which would still give them access to UN agencies and the ICC Evelyn Leopold (Independent Reporter from the UN, former Reuters at the UN Bureau Chief). Huffington Post. Palestine at UN: What Will and What Will Not Happen. 11/9/11. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evelyn-leopold/palestinian-statehood-vote_b_1083596.html Insisting on a vote in the Security Council makes a vote for an upgrade in status in the General Assembly look like a consolation prize. Palestine currently has observer status with no voting rights. Palestinians would have no trouble getting the Assembly to vote in favor of a non-member observer state, like the Vatican. This is an indirect recognition of statehood and allows the Palestinians to join more U.N. agencies and even the International Criminal Court. Although a positive vote is a foregone conclusion, the United States and Israel have been needlessly campaigning against it. 123 | P a g e
Palestine could still become a member of the International Covenants on Civil & Political Rights as well as on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights without having an upgraded status Amnesty International. Q&A: Human Rights Implications of the Palestinian bid for UN Membership. 9/26/11. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/q-and-human-rights-implications-palestinian-bid-un-membership-201109-26 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are both open to states that have been invited to become a party by the General Assembly, as well as UN members. A General Assembly resolution could therefore allow Palestine to become a party to these treaties, even if it did not upgrade Palestines UN status. This would formalize the Palestinian Authoritys human rights obligations and subject it to monitoring and regular review by the relevant treaty bodies. The Palestinian Authority would also continue to be bound by customary international law.
PALESTINE HAS REFUSED TO COOPERATE OR NEGOTIATE WITH ISRAEL (THUS THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE, NOT ISRAEL OR THE UN, FOR DEALING WITH THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR SILENCE) Gershon Baskin (CEO of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information, columnist for The Jerusalem Post). The Jerusalem Post. Encountering Peace: Lets Not Talk? 11/7/11. http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?ID=244744&R=R1 At the most senior levels, Palestinians have decided to refuse Israeli offers to resume negotiations. Their point of view is based on years of frustration of the failure of the peace talks as they witness on a daily basis parts of their homeland being developed under their watchful eyes as Israeli settlements. Palestinians had hoped that the international community, backed by the determined words of US President Barack Obama, would force Israel to stop settlement building. But this did not happen.
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When Palestine last made a bid for membership, Israel used its influence to cut down UNESCO funding and convince the US to freeze aid to Palestine they even pushed the Seretary General to suggest they stop plans before losing even more diplomatic power Gershon Baskin (CEO of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information, columnist for The Jerusalem Post). The Jerusalem Post. Encountering Peace: Lets Not Talk? 11/7/11. http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?ID=244744&R=R1 The Palestinians, having made the decision to go to the UN to bring the Palestinian issue back to the international community, now face the frustrating reality of failure with no chance of gaining membership in the UN at this time. The aim of going to the UN was to create a game changer an act that would empower them and attempt to level the playing field to some extent. But Israel has maintained the stronger hand and with its influence and American support has managed to prevent Palestinian success in the international arena. With US funding to UNESCO now being cut, even the UN Secretary General is recommending the Palestinians drop their plans to achieve membership in additional UN bodies. US aid to the Palestinians is now frozen and with no financial rescue coming from the Arab world, the Palestinians need to come up with a new plan. In essence, both sides do. The no-talks reality is not in the interest of either party. But before coming to the conclusion that talk they must, it seems we are still in for more tactical steps, perhaps threats that delay the inevitable and place some very dangerous possibilities in front of us.
Israeli actions influenced congress to freeze its economic support for the Palestinian Authority Gershon Baskin (CEO of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information, columnist for The Jerusalem Post). The Jerusalem Post. Encountering Peace: Lets Not Talk? 11/7/11. http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?ID=244744&R=R1 Israeli actions influencing the US Congress to freeze support for the PA along with the illegal Israeli action of freezing the transfer of Palestinian funds collected by Israel, as part of the Oslo agreement, shake the very foundation of the Palestinian Authority and increase the risk of collapse and a return to violence.
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A2: Would allow the UN to prosecute Palestine; everything done by Hamas wouldnt be applicable to anything Palestine signs, since it would remain a non-state actor Amnesty International. Q&A: Human Rights Implications of the Palestinian bid for UN Membership. 9/26/11. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/q-and-human-rights-implications-palestinian-bid-un-membership-201109-26 The impact of the Palestinian Authoritys statehood bid on efforts to pursue accountability for abuses by Hamas is less straightforward. Even if the Palestinians were to accede to international treaties, they would not apply to Hamas, which would remain a non-state actor.
The ICC can already investigate and prosecute crimes committed by non-state actors Amnesty International. Q&A: Human Rights Implications of the Palestinian bid for UN Membership. 9/26/11. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/q-and-human-rights-implications-palestinian-bid-un-membership-201109-26 Hamas, however, has obligations under customary international humanitarian law. If Palestine were to gain access to the ICC, that would strengthen efforts to hold both the Hamas authorities and Palestinian armed groups accountable, as the ICC can investigate and prosecute crimes under international law even if they are committed by non-state actors.
Palestines precondition for working with Israel is a moratorium on Jewish settlements in the West Bank Evelyn Leopold (Independent Reporter from the UN, former Reuters at the UN Bureau Chief). Huffington Post. Palestine at the UN: A Movable Feast Behind the Rhetoric. 9/21/11. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evelynleopold/palestine-statehood_b_974920.html Dr. Nabeel Shaath, advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen), told a news conference that Palestinians would give the Security Council "some time" to consider the request and then go to the General Assembly. He said Palestinians wanted to make a "serious attempt" at full membership "without closing any doors," noting that Israel itself had waited over a year for full membership. One precondition to reopening talks, he said again, was a moratorium on Jewish settlements in the West Bank which Israel had done but then lifted. He said Israeli leaders had been talking to Palestinians regularly but no progress was made. "There is no peace if the land is vanishing piece by piece."
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Government regulation of obesity is in the best interest of the people. Notes:
There are two main areas of debate on this resolution; first, would federal regulation of obesity actually reduce obesity? There are many different variables which cause people to be obese, and limiting access to unhealthy foods, the most oft-cited government remedy to reducing obesity would not necessarily convince people to exercise more. The second main area of debate is whether or not federal regulation is justified; Con teams will argue that the federal government should not tell people what to eat because this violates our rights. However, since obesity creates negative externalities for people who are not obesemore expensive airfare, public transit, and healthcaremost serious analysts argue that the federal government has a responsibility to step in and reduce these externalitiessmoking is a great analogous situation. Some Con teams may also argue that the private sector can solve through employers encouraging employees to lose weight, and that private lawsuits can convince companies to offer healthier products. However, the Pro can not that these strategies are not mutually exclusive, and that the judge should vote for the perm to ensure the obesity pandemic is brought to a haltelongating the lives of a third of Americans, and saving Americans 219 billion dollars a year.
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BidRoundBriefs Supplemental Debate Briefs NFL2012 Pro

Obesity trims between 3-10 years off the lives of obese people
USA Today, Nanci Hellmich, Obesity can Trim 10 Years off Life, March 17 2009,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2009-03-17-obesity-death_N.htm
Weighing too much may take as much as a decade off your life, according a new analysis of studies that involved 900,000 people.Adults who are obese about 40 or more pounds over a healthy weight may be cutting about three years off their lives, mostly from heart disease and stroke.Those who are extremely obese, about 100 or more pounds over a healthy weight, could be shortening their lives by as many as 10 years, the study found. Being extremely obese is similar to the effect of lifelong smoking, says Richard Peto, one of the lead researchers and a professor of medical statistics at Oxford University in England.
Lost producitivty+ medical costs mean obesity costs the U.S. 215 billion dollars a year
Brookings Institute, Ross A Hammond, Ruth Levine, The Economic Impact of Obesity in the United States, 2010,
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/articles/2010/9/14%20obesity%20cost%20hammon d%20levine/0914_obesity_cost_hammond_levine.pdf
The overall economic impact of obesity in the US appears to be substantial. Although a comprehensive aggregation across the different categories of literature is an important goal for future research, simple addition of key effects identified in this review would suggest total annual economic costs associated with obesity in excess of $215 billion. The magnitude of this impact, and the potential for high future impact identified by several studies,16,21,47 underscore the importance of the obesity epidemic as a focus for policy and a topic for future research.
Obesity affects one third of Americans

Mens Health News, Sara Cann, Is Obesity the Governments Business?, February 11 2012,
http://news.menshealth.com/is-
obesity-the-government%E2%80%99s-business/2012/02/11/
But with obesity affecting one-third of Americans, this problem is too big for the private sector to tackle, argued debaters former Surgeon General David Satcher, M.D., and Pamela Peeke, M.D., MPH, WebMDs chief lifestyle expert.
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Obesity and obesity related diseases are the leading killers in the U.S.
Mens Health News, Sara Cann, Is Obesity the Governments Business?, February 11 2012, http://news.menshealth.com/is-
Given the recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrating that obesity and diseases caused by obesity are now leading killers in the United States, there can be no question that obesity is and ought to be a major health concern for all Americans.
Individual responsibility can only take place in an environment where there is equal access to the opportunity for a healthy lifestyle
Government is the collective efforts of a society to create the conditions in which people can be healthy. So thats what we see as government. We believe that there is no substitute for individual responsibility. Lets make that clear. Its why I wrote the Prescription to the American People. But individual responsibility can only take place in an environment where there is equal opportunity, there is equal access to the opportunity for a healthy lifestyle, said Dr. Satcher.
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The costs of obesity are also borne by the non-obese, which justifies regulation
MSNBC, Reuters, Study: Obesity Adds $190 Billion in Health Costs, April 30 2012,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47211549/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/t/study-obesity-adds-billionhealth-costs/#.T8Vsx9Xwunk
The startling economic costs of obesity, often borne by the non-obese, could become the epidemic's second-hand smoke. Only when scientists discovered that nonsmokers were developing lung cancer and other diseases from breathing smoke-filled air did policymakers get serious about fighting the habit, in particular by establishing nonsmoking zones. The costs that smoking added to Medicaid also spurred action. Now, as economists put a price tag on sky-high body mass indexes (BMIs), policymakers as well as the private sector are mobilizing to find solutions to the obesity epidemic.
Additional medical costs associated with obesity add up to 190 billion dollars a year, or 1/5 of total U.S. healthcare expenditures
The medical costs of obesity have long been the focus of health economists. A just-published analysis finds that it raises those costs more than thought. Obese men rack up an additional $1,152 a year in medical spending, especially for hospitalizations and prescription drugs, Cawley and Chad Meyerhoefer of Lehigh University reported in January in the Journal of Health Economics. Obese women account for an extra $3,613 a year. Using data from 9,852 men (average BMI: 28) and 13,837 women (average BMI: 27) ages 20 to 64, among whom 28 percent were obese, the researchers found even higher costs among the uninsured: annual medical spending for an obese person was $3,271 compared with $512 for the non-obese.Nationally, that comes to $190 billion a year in additional medical spending as a result of obesity, calculated Cawley, or 20.6 percent of U.S. health care expenditures.
This study should be preferred because it utilizes a better methodology than previous studies
That is double recent estimates, reflecting more precise methodology. The new analysis corrected for peoples tendency to low-ball their weight, for instance, and compared obesity with non-obesity (healthy weight and overweight) rather than just to healthy weight. Because the merely overweight do not incur many additional medical costs, grouping the overweight with the obese underestimates the costs of obesity.
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These costs are born by the non-obese as a result of higher taxes

Those extra medical costs are partly born by the non-obese, in the form of higher taxes to support Medicaid and higher health insurance premiums. Obese women raise such third party expenditures $3,220 a year each; obese men, $967 a year, Cawley and Meyerhoefer found.
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List of measures the government can take to regulate obesity
US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, James G. Hodge, Andrea M. Garcia, Supriya Shah, Legal themes concerning Obesity Regulation in the United States: Theory and Practice, June 2008,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2474638/
Use of Incentives to Encourage Healthier Behaviors
Through the legal use of incentives, government is able to encourage and promote healthier behaviors, particularly more nutritious diets and the need for increased physical activity, among citizens. For example, the state of California has developed a Local Incentive Awards Program, which qualifies local public health agencies for federal matching funds to develop nutrition education and physical activity promotion interventions for low-income communities [7]. The state legislature of New Jersey has enacted legislation that more directly provides incentives for its citizens to engage in healthy behaviors by granting tax deductions as a reward for biking to work [8]. One proposed incentive, which could potentially impact all states, involves the U.S. Medicaid program. This federal-state partnership program provides low-income and other at risk populations with access to basic health care services through subsidized health insurance. Some states, including Florida [9], Iowa [10], and Kentucky [11], have requested and received waivers from federal restrictions on the use of federal funds via the Medicaid program (which provides basic health insurance and services to mostly low income citizens) to experiment with healthy behavior incentives. Florida's "Enhanced Benefits Account" program allows Medicaid beneficiaries to earn credits for engaging in healthy behaviors. Enrollees can later use these credits to purchase health-related items (e.g., pharmaceuticals, medical devices) that they might otherwise have to expend their own resources out-of-pocket [12]. Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) have developed policies that offer their own incentives, such as offering members gifts for responding to outreach programs [13]. Another example of an incentive-based initiative is the U.S. food stamp program. Food stamps provide recipients with less than U.S. $80 per month on average to help them purchase foods of their choice [14]. A 2004 study presented at the American Heart Association found that "a family of four would need to spend U.S. $227 a month in excess of food stamp benefits to make heart-healthy foods part of their daily diet" [15]. As a result, states are exploring ways to encourage the purchase of healthy products through food stamps. California, for example, has passed legislation to increase fruit and vegetable consumption by providing a specified bonus for every dollar of food stamps spent on fresh produce [16,17]. These types of incentive programs illustrate how government and private sector entities can use laws and policies to encourage populations to engage in healthier behaviors.
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Use of Financial Disincentives to Discourage Unhealthy Behaviors
A counter strategy to providing incentives to encourage healthy behaviors is to use law, particularly taxation, as a tool to discourage unhealthy behaviors. Taxation has historically been used effectively to control the consumption of alcohol and tobacco products through federal, state, and local taxes. Despite the addictive nature of tobacco products, studies indicate that tobacco consumption declines an average of 4% for every 10% increase in price [18]. Building on these results, 17 states and the U.S. District of Columbia have placed specific taxes (either through sales or excise taxes) on foods and/or beverages of low nutritional value [19]. The idea is that these taxes will provide a strong disincentive for individuals against purchasing and ingesting these products, resulting in a reduction in obesity counts. For those who still choose to purchase these products, tax revenues from sales could be used to fund healthy eating or obesity prevention campaigns [20]. California's 7.25% sales tax on soft drinks, for example, generates about U.S. $218 million in general revenues annually [20]. Unfortunately, among those states that currently feature these taxes, very few earmark the funds for public health campaigns to address obesity [20]. Opponents of the taxes say that they are regressive and are unlikely to encourage people to consume healthier foods [19].
Requirements to Improve Food Quality, Diversity, or Availability
Government's ability to require improvements in nutrition applies to multiple settings where people obtain food. An obvious example where the government directly sets food standards is in public schools. Under the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service, which administers the National School Lunch and Breakfast program, federal subsidies are provided to schools as long as nutrition guidelines are met [17]. However, "competitive foods" sold through vending machines, school stores, or snack bars are not regulated under federal nutrition standards [17]. As a result, the U.S. Congress commissioned the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to develop a set of standards for these foods [21]. Released in April 2007, the IOM report concluded that the sale of competitive foods should be limited in schools. When these foods are available, however, they should be consistent with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans [21]. Putting these recommendations into practice would involve changes in federal, state and local laws and school policies. The U.S. Senate is considering the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act, which would give the USDA the authority to regulate competitive foods and penalize non-compliant schools [22]. In addition, threats of sanction or government regulation may result in industry selfregulation. Consider the 2006 voluntary agreement signed by soft drink giants Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Cadbury Schweppes, to remove high-calorie sodas from schools by 2009 [23]. A 2003 lawsuit filed in California against the U.S. multi-conglomerate Kraft Foods sought to prevent the marketing and selling of Oreo brand cookies, which contained trans fats, to
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children in the state. The lawsuit was dropped when Kraft announced that it was working to reduce trans fat in its cookies and agreed to cease all in-school marketing [24].
Compensation for Injured Persons Seeking Recourse
Litigation in the pursuit of some sort of compensation for obese consumers is increasingly seen as a viable option in the U.S. Cases have been brought against the food industry claiming that it engaged in deceptive practices, inadequately disclosed health risks, or mislead consumers through its advertisements [25]. For example, in 2002, a class action lawsuit was filed against Robert's American Gourmet Food, Inc. and Keystone Food Products for distributing and manufacturing products, under the names Pirate Booty, Veggie Booty and Fruity Booty, which had a substantially higher fat and caloric content than advertised [26]. Allegations of fraud and deceptive trade practices resulted in a judgment of U.S. $3.5 million and U.S. $790,000 in attorney's fees. On appeal, however, the class was effectively decertified, and the lower court's judgments were ultimately dismissed [27]. A widely-reported case of persons seeking compensation for obesity-related injuries is Pelman v. McDonald's Corp. In 2002, the parents of two obese minors filed a complaint against McDonald's Corporation in New York State alleging deceptive practices, negligence, and failure to warn consumers of the harms of ingesting food at McDonald's restaurants [28]. This case was initially dismissed, as was an amended complaint suggesting that the alleged deceptive practices were in violation of state consumer protection laws [29]. The case appeared closed until the parents appealed the second dismissal and won [30]. The case is moving forward to trial on allegations that McDonald's created the false impression that its food products were nutritionally beneficial [31]. To counter the proliferation of obesity-related lawsuits against food manufacturers, distributors, marketers, advertisers, sellers and trade associations, Congress considered, but did not pass, the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act and Commonsense Consumption Act in 2003 [32,33] and 2005 [34,35]. Collectively, these bills sought to protect food manufacturers and retailers from civil actions brought by obese consumers, deferring to executive agencies (and not the courts) to determine appropriate measures to respond to industry practices. While such measures have failed at the federal level, nearly half of American states have enacted "personal responsibility" laws that shield fast food companies from obesity-related tort claims [19].
Restricting Access to Unhealthy Foods
Restricting access to unhealthy foods through governmental zoning laws and the voluntary action of restaurants can presumably lead to improvements in human nutrition by limiting the availability of detrimental foods and increasing access to more wholesome food choices. Local zoning laws in the U. S. can be used to create a healthier retail food market through several different themes [36], including (1) rezoning residential areas to restrict
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development to restaurants that do not serve "fast-food;" (2) providing incentives for developers to offer health food stores among commercial options; and (3) requiring fast food restaurants to offer a minimum number of healthy choices [36]. Zoning laws can justify (1) outright bans of fast food establishments, such as San Francisco's (California) prohibition of "formula retail uses" in a historic neighborhood district, and (2) restrictions, such as the city of Detroit's (Michigan) policy that certain fast food restaurants may not be built within 500 feet of a school [36]. When challenged, U.S. courts typically uphold such laws on public health and non-public health bases. For example, in the Massachusetts case of Bellas v. Planning Board of Weymouth (2002), an appellate court found that a drive-thru window created by a franchised doughnut shop would generate increased traffic that could affect the safety of children walking to school, and hence denied the required permit [36]. The effect of the court's decision, which was grounded in zoning laws, is to limit some access to food choices that could contribute to an increase in weight among some consumers. Limiting access to unhealthy foods does not always require governmental interventions. Some restaurants, under pressure from lawsuits and municipal requests, have focused on modifying their recipes or products to decrease fat content, particularly trans fats. Prompted by a lawsuit filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) began using trans fat free soybean oil in all of its restaurants in 2007 [37]. In May 2005, the city of Tiburon, California became the first "trans fat free city" when its restaurants switched to using alternative oils [38]. Larger jurisdictions, including New York City and Philadelphia, PA, have since banned the use of trans fats in their restaurants [38]. Consequently, major chains such as Wendy's and Chili's have had to modify their recipes to improve the nutritional quality of their food [37].
Regulations Aimed at Influencing Consumer Choices
Consumers need nutrition information to make healthy decisions about foods. Correspondingly, government has sought to increase regulation of nutrition and menu labels in the U.S. The federal Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) of 1990 requires most foods offered for retail purchase to be labeled with nutrient and ingredient information, and for health claims to comply with standards [39]. Processed meals served in restaurants, however, are not currently required to include nutrition information. Some restaurants provide this information about their meals voluntarily under varying formats [40]. To provide consumers with nutrition information, menu labeling bills have been introduced at the federal, state and local levels. At the federal level, the Menu Education and Labeling Act (MELA), first proposed in 2003 [41] and reintroduced in 2006 [42], would require chain restaurants with 20 or more locations to provide consumers with information on calories, sodium, fat, and trans fat content [43]. At the state level, Maine was the first to introduce menu labeling legislation. In 2006, nine states and D.C. considered a variety of menu labeling bills. None of these bills, however, were enacted, most likely due to opposition from the restaurant industry [40]. At the local
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level, there has been some success in enacting these regulations, such as when the New York City Board of Health approved measures requiring restaurants to make caloric (or energy) information publicly available at the point of purchase by posting it on menus and menu boards for consumers to read before they order [44]. The New York Restaurant Association recently filed a federal lawsuit against the measures, arguing that the requirement to post this information violates their First Amendment rights and is preempted by the NLEA [45].
Control of Marketing and Advertising
Marketing and advertising of food products can be powerful tools for influencing consumer choices, particularly among children. In 2006, the IOM reported that food and beverage marketing has an influence on the preferences and purchase requests of children and may contribute to negative diet-related health outcomes and risks [46]. In the U.S., the food industry has adopted a self-regulatory program, the Children's Advertising and Review Unit (CARU), that monitors and reviews advertising directed at children, and determines whether there has been a violation. However, action is only taken once a violation has been identified. Even then, the cooperation of advertisers is sought to make changes on a voluntary basis [47]. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) share regulatory responsibility for advertising. The FCC regulates interstate and international communications through radio, television, wire, satellite and cable [48]. The FTC protects consumers against unfair and deceptive practices [49]. However, government's authority to regulate advertising must constantly be balanced with the industry's First Amendment right to commercial speech (e.g., speech in any form that advertises a business product, service, or purpose)[50]. Commercial speech in the United States is specifically protected from unwarranted governmental infringements via freedom of speech guarantees [51]. While government may restrict commercial advertising, its interest must be substantial, regulations must be proportional to that interest, and regulations must not be more extensive than necessary to serve that interest [51]. A recent federal report encourages increased company initiatives and a strengthened self-regulatory system to address childhood obesity [52]. The FCC Task Force on Media and Childhood Obesity is currently studying the links between advertisements, television viewing habits, and the increase in childhood obesity, and will issue a report with recommendations [53]. Consumer protection laws and litigation can also be used to restrict unhealthy advertising to children. In January 2006, the CSPI, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), and parents indicated their intent to file a suit against a major U.S. broadcaster and breakfast cereal company for allegedly engaging in acts and practices that were unfair and deceptive in the marketing and sale of foods of poor nutritional quality to children under 8 years of age [54]. Though ultimately dropped, the lawsuit sought to stop the marketing of "food of poor nutritional quality or product line or brand for which more than 50% of the food products are of poor nutritional quality" to children [54].
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Creation of Communities that Support Healthy Lifestyles
A community's built environment, including proximity of facilities, availability of walking/biking paths, and housing density, has been shown to heavily influence people's lifestyles [55]. As a result, government officials have developed several programs that encourage healthy behaviors and promote physical activity as a way to combat ill health and obesity. Creating communities that support healthy lifestyles means redesigning or rebuilding environments so that they offer safe opportunities for physical activities. For example, the state of Hawaii's "Bike Plan Hawaii 2003" includes a guide for improving biking facilities and monitoring biking conditions [56]. The Florida legislature enacted the "Florida Greenways and Trails System" in 2005 to establish a trail system that provides people with access to "healthful outdoor activities" [57]. Because safety is one of the major concerns preventing some children from walking or biking to school, the federal government implemented its Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program in August 2005. This program provides funding for a wide array of municipal projects, such as the building of safer street crossings, so that walking/biking to school can become a safe and routine activity [58]. As part of the creation of comprehensive plans that combine urban planning with the promotion of physical activity, the federal Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed the Active Community Environments (ACES) initiative, which promotes the development of accessible recreation facilities in addition to walking/biking trails. ACES' guidebook assists public health officials in planning and promoting local recreation facilities. CDC also collaborates with entities, such as the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to assess the relationship of land to uses and survey attitudes of Americans concerning the environment, walking, and biking [55]. States have also engaged in their own campaigns to promote healthy lifestyles. The Healthy Arkansas Initiative, for example, helps citizens locate wellness resources in their community [59].
Physical Education/Fitness Requirements
Through legislation, physical education and fitness requirements have been implemented in schools and the workplace. Offering physical education classes and programs in schools allows children to learn and develop healthy exercise habits. Illinois, Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island all require some level of physical education for elementary and secondary students [60]. Similar requirements in the workplace provide employees with incentives and opportunities to incorporate exercise into their workday, with corresponding health and economic benefits. A legislative resolution in Arkansas in 2001 requested that all directors of state agencies design and implement physical activity programs as part of their workday. The state also encourages all employers to offer "worksite wellness programs" by providing educational information and guidelines for developing incentive programs and integrating programs into the existing organizational
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structure [61]. The state-sponsored Healthy Hawaii Initiative promotes similar educational and physical activity projects [62]. In 2002, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) found that at worksites which offer physical activity programs, employers have been able to reduce healthcare costs by 2055%, reduce short term sick leave by 632%, and increase overall productivity [63]. In October 2006, DHHS launched its project to develop a comprehensive set of guidelines relating to physical activity and nutrition for Americans in a variety of settings [64].
Insurance Coverage Mandates
A final legal theme in combating America's obesity epidemic focuses on regulations that target insurance practices. Although private insurance companies in the U.S. typically cover the health effects of obesity (e.g., type II diabetes, heart disease), they usually do not cover treatment, through programs or surgeries, of obesity itself. Private health insurers feature different policies and formulas for determining whether they will cover a particular surgery related to morbid obesity [65]. This lack of uniformity prevents some patients from receiving treatment for a highly debilitating condition, primarily because they cannot afford treatment in the U.S. health care system. Government health care programs, such as the U.S. Medicare program, may provide coverage for select surgeries relating to morbid obesity. Medicare is a federal program that subsidizes health care insurance primarily for Americans age 65 and older and some people with disabilities under the age of 65. A Medicare recipient must meet specific requirements to be eligible for morbid obesity surgery, including having a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 35, being diagnosed with at least one concurrent illness related to obesity, and having previously and unsuccessfully attempted to treat obesity through medically-supervised care (and not just personal efforts to, for example, lose weight through diet plans) [66]. Public funding of surgery for morbid obesity underscores the necessity for private insurance companies to offer such coverage as well. Some states have introduced legislation to require insurance providers to cover obesity-specific treatments. For example, the Indiana legislature requires the state's group insurance plan to provide coverage for the treatment of morbid obesity among public employees [67]. The Missouri state legislature amended its laws to mandate that all health benefit plans renewed after August 28, 2007 cover morbid obesity treatment [68]. Furthermore, Idaho's legislature amended its health insurance laws to require coverage for expenses of services associated with morbid obesity [69].
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BidRoundBriefs Supplemental Debate Briefs NFL2012 Con

Employerswho the obese receive insurance fromcan take steps to reduce obesity, this solves better than government regulation because employers have more leverage than the government
One recent surprise is the discovery that the costs of obesity exceed those of smoking. In a paper published in March, scientists at the Mayo Clinic toted up the exact medical costs of 30,529 Mayo employees, adult dependents, and retirees over several years. Smoking added about 20 percent a year to medical costs, said Mayos James Naessens. Obesity was similar, but morbid obesity increased those costs by 50 percent a year. There really is an economic justification for employers to offer programs to help the very obese lose weight.
Government regulation of obesity stigmatizes the obese

Mens Health News, Sara Cann, Is Obesity the Governments Business?, February 11 2012,
http://news.menshealth.com/is-
Cue the contrarians. And the folks at Intelligence Squared know how to stimulate a lively debate: Invite a Libertarian. Fox News Anchor John Stossel took any chance to prove that government hasnt had a strong track record intervening in the personal lives of Americans. And his debate partner, Paul Camposauthor of The Obesity Myth: Why Americas Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Healthdisputed the scientific evidence on obesity and its associated health riskbasically begging the question whether obesity really needs to be stigmatized and whether it is a life-threatening disease. We do know that labeling bodies as diseased is stigmatizing, and we know that stigma is very bad for health, says Campos. I would advocate more than anything else that we ought to focus on harm reduction, not weight reduction. And if you say that you dont want to stigmatize obese people but you just want to stigmatize obesity, I would suggest that that is a protocol thats not going to be successful.
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A government initiative to make fat people thin could spark eating disorders
The debate evolved into a fistfight over wording. Campos accused his opponents of trying to make fat people thin while Dr. Peeke and Dr. Satcher emphasized that theyre just trying to enforce a healthy lifestylenot necessarily weight loss. Perhaps because of this muddled back-and-forth banter, voters were swayed to change their original votes. Or maybe it was Campos conspiracy-esque theory, which he brought up in his closing statement:
Law suits and other private governance mechanisms can, and are already addressing obesity
Vanderbilt Law School, Lauren B Jacques, The Federal Governments Role in Combatting Obesity: A Matter of Personal Responsibility or Public Health,
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CGgQFjAH&url=http%3A %2F%2Flaw.vanderbilt.edu%2Fstudent-resources%2Fstudent-organizations%2Fhealth-lawsociety%2Fhealth-law-forum%2Fdownload.aspx%3Fid%3D7328&ei=mG_FTznFaLEsAL9oJ2rBg&usg=AFQjCNEKqYN4h9dFSPL-c4NvS0ufUKbEWA&sig2=etk7t6vQmS3dJIImeO-ZhA
The first option for addressing obesity in America is for the federal government to simply do nothing. Those who subscribe to the personal responsibility approach to obesity likely favor this alternative. If the federal government were to do nothing with respect to the rising obesity rates in America, obesity would likely be addressed or regulated privately. Although there may be many possible private governance mechanisms to address obesity, one important non-governmental response is private litigation. One way that Americas obesity epidemic may still be combated in the absence of the federal governments involvement is through private lawsuits. Already, *l+itigation has been one of the most well-publicized and controversial efforts to address the obesity epidemic in the United States.24 These McLawsuits25 are often brought against fast food chains under the theory that manufacturers and distributors of these food products should be held liable for the obesity-causing effects of their products.26
20
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Government regulation of obesity presupposes people cant make responsible eating choices
Marshall Manson, Center for Individual Freedom, Hearing on the Supersizing of America, June 3 2004,
http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/legislative_issues/state_issues/supersizing_america.htm
With increased attention focused on obesity and other nutritional concerns, CSPI and similar groups now see an opportunity to move their agenda forward. However, their proposals reveal an underlying belief that Americans cannot make responsible choices about what to eat and drink. For example, in recent years CSPI and similar groups have pushed such radical regulatory steps as a new federal tax on junk food, sodas, and other snacks (the so-called "Twinkie tax"), granting the USDA complete authority to regulate all foods in schools nationwide with an eye toward banning sodas, cookies, candy and other snacks, and federally mandated labeling of restaurant menus with detailed nutrition information.
There is no single cure-all to prevent obesity

First, we must recognize that there is no single cure-all for obese Americans. There are literally hundreds of causes of obesity, and there are as many solutions as there are causes.
Unhealthy food in and of itself dont cause obesity

However, its important to note that in and of themselves, hamburgers, hotdogs, sodas, candy, white bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, and even apple pie dont cause obesity. Instead, with the exception of medical conditions, obesity most often results from individuals eating too much while exercising too little.
The government can campaign against obesity without regulation

Nevertheless, there are limited steps that the government can take in a general campaign against obesity. For example, the federal government can continue and enhance its efforts to encourage responsible decision-making, promote increased exercise, and issue balanced dietary recommendations based on careful, unbiased science.
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Questionable solvency: too many variables

First, there are countless practical problems. Congress cannot possibly be expected to legislate effectively against obesity. There are too many causes and too many problems for an omnibus Congressional solution. Nor is it feasible for Congress to instruct a federal regulatory authority to fight obesity through rule-making. Further, scientific understanding of human nutrition, diet needs, and the causes of obesity improves constantly. The government is ill-equipped to understand and integrate these advances into its legislation or regulation.
Government regulation would infringe upon our basic freedoms

Second, and more importantly, the federal government shouldnt be in the business of telling Americans what and what not to eat and drink. Our democracy is founded on the idea that individuals have basic freedoms. Among these, certainly, is the right to choose what we put on our plates and in our goblets. But the anti-food extremists like CSPI would gladly take away that freedom and mandate our diet in order to save us from ourselves. It is time for these zealous anti-food advocates to understand that it is not the federal governments job to save us from ourselves by making our choices for us.
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The U.S. should provide military aid to Syrian opposition forces. Notes:
After more than a year of violently oppressing their people, the Syrian regime still has a firm grip on power. Sanctions and diplomatic admonishments from the international community have not been able to prevent the murder of over 8000 Syrians. Everyone agrees that the violence should stop, the question is how? The resolution asks whether the U.S. should provide military aid to Syrian opposition forces; this means Con teams can argue that the U.S. should help coordinate assistance from other countries with a greater stake in Syrias stabilitylike Turkey, and the UAErather than directly aiding the Syrian opposition. This saves American tax dollars, and also protects Americas reputation if military assistance backfires. However, many analysts argue that a coordinated effort to organize and arm and the Syrian opposition would require the U.S. to assist with logistics, setting up a safe zone for Syrian rebels and civilianswhich would require America to bomb Syrias airforceand to help the opposition set up and operate command and control systems. These are all tasks uniquely suited to American capabilities. However, the most important area of debate is whether aiding the opposition will help avoid a bloody civil war or spark it. Some analysts argue that shifting the balance of power on the ground away from Assad will precipitate defections among Assads senior military and government staff, isolating him, and forcing him to come to some sort of accommodation with the international community and his people. However, other analysts argue that arming the rebels will lock Syria into a bloody civil war, and open the door for sectarian violence within Syria and in neighboring Lebanon. These analysts argue that while the interventionists have their hearts in the right place, if they really want to help the Syrian people they should first strive to do no harm.
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Paul Collier (an expert on regime change) says that we should arm the opposition ramp up pressure on Assad, and precipitate more defections
Foreign Policy, Stephen Walt, What to do about Syria, April 11 2012,
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/04/11/what_to_do_about_syria
Reading two pieces that appeared today helps clarify the basic dilemma. The first piece, by economist Paul Collier of Oxford, argues that the Assad regime is living on borrowed time, having "crossed a red line" of international acceptance. He advocates ramping up the pressure by arming the opposition forces, in order to encourage Syrian army leaders and other Baath officials to defect. (The piece is in the Financial Times, and is firewalled on their site).
A full scale civil war in Syria is inevitable

Council on Foreign Relations, Eliot Abrams, American Options in Syria, October 2011, http://www.cfr.org/syria/american-options-syria/p26226 With each month, the level of violence in Syria rises. Bashar al-Assad's regime has killed just short of three thousand citizens, and with defections from the army growing, it appears the population is starting to fight back. A full-scale civil war, with the Alawite minority regime fighting for its life against an armed rebellion by forces based in the Sunni majority population, seems increasingly plausible.
There is no basis for believing the Assad Regime will lead a transition to democracy
Council on Foreign Relations, Eliot Abrams, American Options in Syria, October 2011, http://www.cfr.org/syria/american-options-syria/p26226 The Obama administration has already abandoned the goal of regime reform, and rightly so: there is no basis in Assad regime behavior for sustaining a belief that he could lead a transition to democracy.
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Continued diplomacy will lead to a bloody stalemate
Brookings Institute, Daniel Byman, Kenneth Pollack, Saving Syria: Assessing Options for Regime Change, March 2012,
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/3/15%20syria%20saban/0315_syria_saban.pdf Despite the dramatic challenge to Asads rule, he might yet lift a page from Saddams playbook. Therefore, Washingtons current policy toward Syria may not end in Asads fall. It might, instead, produce an alternative outcome: a prolonged and bloody stalemate. The Syrian state might lose control of some of its territory, and the opposition would doubtless forge links with outside actors, but the regime would remain in conflict with the opposition and the international community
A stalemate in Syria would strengthen our enemies and decrease the prospects for democratic reform in the middle east as a whole
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/3/15%20syria%20saban/0315_syria_saban.pdf A stalemate in Syria would benefit Russia and Iran, and also damage the cause, more broadly, of democratic reform in the entire Middle East
Endgame for military assistance

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/3/15%20syria%20saban/0315_syria_saban.pdf A U.S. or allied-armed opposition could gain victory in two ways: the FSA could defeat Syrias armed forces and conquer the country, or it could continue to gain strength and dishearten regime stalwarts, leading to mass defections or even a coup that causes the regime to collapse. The FSA would then become the new Syrian army, subordinate to an elected Syrian government, with the mission of ensuring the country remains stable and has protected borders.
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The U.S. is needed to provide logistical and command and control assistance to the rebels
James Traub, Foreign Policy Magazine, Enough Talking Kofi, May 25 2012, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/25/enough_talking_kofi Fawzi says that no Plan B is on offer, but the fact is that an impromptu Plan B appears to be taking shape: Turkey will provide its territory for the training and organization of the Free Syrian Army, the United States will provide logistical and command-and-control assistance, and Gulf states will supply the hardware. Everyone, including Annan and the U.N., will labor mightily to keep the Syrian National Council, the political organ of the opposition, from collapsing into utter chaos, as it now threatens to do, and to persuade the SNC, the rebel army, and the Local Coordinating Committees inside Syria to work together.
Benefits to overthrowing the Assad regime

Council on Foreign Relations, Eliot Abrams, American Options in Syria, October 2011, http://www.cfr.org/syria/american-options-syria/p26226 The end of the Assad regime would be a great gain for the United States. The regime is a bloody dictatorship that is host to Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, Iran's only Arab ally, the route through which Iran arms Hezbollah, and a permanent threat to Lebanon's sovereignty and internal peace. Moreover, by doing its best to assist jihadis seeking to fight Americans in Iraq, it was complicit in the deaths of many Americans soldiers and the wounding of far more. As the regime fights its own populace and clings to power, effective sanctions and vigorous diplomacy can help shorten its life and lay the foundations for a determined effort to build a democratic state in its place.
The Annan peace plan is not working; 100 civilians were slaughtered in one weekend despite the presence of U.N. peace monitors and Assads supposed acquiesce with the agreement
James Traub, Foreign Policy Magazine, Enough Talking Kofi, May 25 2012, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/25/enough_talking_kofi Annan is of course in the midst of another such mission, this time as U.N.-Arab League special envoy to Syria, where he has presented a six-point plan to President Bashar al-Assad in the hopes of ending the mass killing of civilians. In recent weeks, Assad had made Annan look like a nave devotee of peace-at-any-price by first accepting the plannd then systematically trampling on its terms. And then, last Friday, government forces and local militias systematically slaughtered more than 100 civilians, most of them women and children, in Houla, a group of villages in the province of Homs, proving beyond any doubt that Assad has been cynically using Annan
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to buy time for his own plan, which is to kill and terrorize his opponents. The time has come to thank Kofi Annan for his services and send him back home to Geneva.
UN Monitors fail: violence is down when theyre in an area, violence spikes as soon as they leave
James Traub, Foreign Policy Magazine, Enough Talking Kofi, May 25 2012, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/25/enough_talking_kofi When I asked Ahmad Fawzi, a former U.N. official who serves as the spokesman for the mission in Syria, why Annan was still shuttling between capitals even as Assad's forces continued to shell civilians, he said, "It's the only game in town at the moment." Fawzi made only the most modest claims for the mission's success: Violence goes down while inspectors occupy a given space, though often returns to previous levels once they leave; civilians might "start having faith in the presence of the observers." But it was still better than the alternative -- even more killing.
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Assad will only leave if the alternative is death

James Traub, Foreign Policy Magazine, Enough Talking Kofi, May 25 2012,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/25/enough_talking_kofi
Of course, that's not true either. The Syrian opposition, military and political, won't relent until Assad leaves, but Assad almost certainly won't leave unless he feels that the only alternative is death. And that moment is still very far away. The Obama administration understands this well, but views all the available alternatives as even worse than the current one -- talking while Assad keeps killing. I was at a recent lunch with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who responded to a volley of questions about humanitarian corridors, airstrikes, and the like by saying, "There is a risk it ends in more violence, which is why the last peaceful game in town is one worth pursuing, even if it's a low-probability game, which we readily admit it is."
The opposition needs the U.S. to provide real time military intelligence
Foreign Policy, James Traub, The Least Bad Option, March 30 2012,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/03/30/the_least_bad_option?page=0,1
One person I spoke to who does have a plan is a former government official with extensive experience in Syria. The opposition, he argues, needs not just weapons but "a comprehensive military and civilian battle plan" to defeat Assad. He envisions a multilateral effort in which the United States would provide not just communications technology but real-time military intelligence to help the rebels respond to government troop movements. Gulf states would provide the bulk of the weapons and funds; the Jordanians might provide special forces to work closely with the militia; Turkey would provide the staging ground itself as well as other forms of aid; and diplomats would give strategic guidance to the SNC.
If the balance of power is not tilted in the oppositions favorthrough military aidAssad will not step down
Foreign Policy, Josh Rogin, Kerry: Time to consider safe zones and arming the opposition in Syria, May 8 2012, http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/05/08/kerry_time_to_consider_safe_zones_and_arming_the_oppo sition_in_syria Kerry also warned that if the balance of power is not tilted in Syria in the opposition's favor, it's unlikely that President Bashar al-Assad will step down. A political transition that sees Assad removed from power remains the goal, he said, but the United States must step up its efforts to make that goal a reality. "You have to change the current dynamic. That's to me the bottom line," Kerry said. "We have to increase the pressure, change the calculations, and succeed in creating a capacity for a movement to a negotiated reform process with a transition that takes place through elections at the right moment."
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The Syrian opposition has plans to secure chemical weapons depots/otherwise prepare for contingencies which will arise from Assads fall
Haaretz, Anshell Pfeffer, Syrian Rebel Leader to Harratz: Assads Opposition Will Secure Chemical Weapons, May 28 2012, http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/the-axis/syrian-rebel-leader-to-haaretz-assad-s-opposition-will-securechemical-weapons-1.433021 The Syrian opposition has plans to take control of the Assad regime's chemical weapons depots and secure them in the first hours after the regime collapses, a senior figure in the opposition told Haaretz. The opposition leader, a former senior officer in the Syrian Army, spoke to Haaretz on conditions of anonymity. I personally have no problem speaking to Israelis, he said, but our countries are still officially at war, and there are too many people who would try to use an interview to an Israeli paper to harm the opposition. The former officer fought in Syrias wars against Israel and is still intimately connected with senior officers in the army, including many who have defected to the opposition Free Syrian Army. In addition to fighting the regime, he said, there are a group of us preparing for the chaos that we know will ensue on the day the regime is toppled. We have committees dealing with a new constitution and elections, justice and the restoration of security.
A third of the Syrian armed forces have defected so far

Haaretz, Anshell Pfeffer, Syrian Rebel Leader to Harratz: Assads Opposition Will Secure Chemical Weapons, May 28 2012, http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/the-axis/syrian-rebel-leader-to-haaretz-assad-s-opposition-will-securechemical-weapons-1.433021 The opposition figure says that around a third of the Syrian armed forces have defected so far. There are two kinds of defectors, he says, the majority, around 60,000, have simply run away, back to their homes, while some 30,000 have actively joined the opposition, mostly the Free Syrian Army, and are fighting.
Assad wont consider peace unless the on the ground calculations change
Foreign Policy, Josh Rogin, Kerry: Time to consider safe zones and arming the opposition in Syria, May 8 2012, http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/05/08/kerry_time_to_consider_safe_zones_and_arming_the_oppo sition_in_syria "That's could be something Russia might buy into and the international community might as well, but Assad won't unless the on the ground calculations change," said Kerry, who just returned from a conference in Jordan that included Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
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Training opposition fighters could establish unity amongst the Syrian opposition Foreign Policy, Josh Rogin, Kerry: Time to consider safe zones and arming the opposition in Syria, May 8 2012, http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/05/08/kerry_time_to_consider_safe_zones_and_arming_the_oppo sition_in_syria But he cautioned that the United States should insist on greater unity within opposition ranks before it provides lethal aid, noting that international efforts to train opposition fighters could help establish that very unity. Safe zones within Syria would have to be defended by some foreign military force, but not necessary the United States or NATO, Kerry explained.
Turkey will not launch a unilateral intervention into Syria

The Strategic Research and Communication Center, Michael Weiss, Safe Area for Syria, 2011,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_documents/111228_intervention_Syria_paper_.pdf
Turkey has been mulling the imposition of a buffer zone for months, to little tangible effect. Yet if ever a moment to intervene in Syria presented itself to Turkey, it should have arrived in mid-June, when more than 10,000 refugees from Jisr al-Shoghour fled to Antakya, or after the recent regime-sponsored raids on the Turkish embassy in Damascus, consulates in Aleppo and Lattakia and hajj pilgrims in Homs. It has become clear that Ankara is not going to launch a unilateral military operation against a neighbouring country that, less than a year ago, was being hailed as its great commercial and diplomatically. Turkey has never conducted a humanitarian intervention on its own and is unlikely to begin one now.
The longer we wait to intervene the more time Assads regime has to consolidate, increasing the risk for future intervention
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_documents/111228_intervention_Syria_paper_.pdf The risks associated with the most robust option -- an aerial campaign matched by a small ground operation -- are mitigated in part by the relative weakness of Assads regular forces and military assets. Offering the regime additional time to consolidate and explore alternative means to shore up their resources will enhance risk for future intervention.
Setting up a safe zone would require aerial bombardment firstthus not safe zone without military assistance
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_documents/111228_intervention_Syria_paper_.pdf Because the Syrian Air Force might attempt combat sorties and try to obstruct the establishment of a safe area, a pre-emptive aerial campaign would have to be waged to neutralize the regimes air defence systems, particularly in Aleppo and Lattakia and in and around Damascus.
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Opposition fighters could be trained in a safe zone
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_documents/111228_intervention_Syria_paper_.pdf An air strike could be waged by U.S., British, French and Turkish aircraft, facilitated by support aircraft from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan, all of which participated in enforcing the Libyan no-fly zone. U.S. Special Forces, the Special Air Service and Turkish and Qatari Special Forces could coordinate on the ground with rebel Syrian soldiers to establish an 11-square-kilometer perimeter around Jisr alShoghour. Training of additional defectors could be conducted at Incirlik Air Base and other regional bases or at a makeshift rebel base in the safe area itself.
The U.S. has the technology necessary to overwhelm Syrias air defense capabilities
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_documents/111228_intervention_Syria_paper_.pdf One incentive for launching a preliminary aerial campaign to secure a safe area is the proven weakness of Syrias air defence systems. In 2007, the Israeli Air Force was easily able to bomb the Syrian nuclear facility at al-Kibar, first by jamming the regimes radars to make it seem as if no planes were in the sky, then by creating phantom blips of hundreds of planes seemingly everywhere within Syrian air space. The U.S. has similar technology. In short, with multilateral support, and the coordination of rebel units on the ground, an aerial campaign can prove strategically decisive, while meeting U.S., Western and regional security aims -- including the stated desire of regional Arab and Western leaders to see Assad gone.
Creating a safe zone is a form of military intervention

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_documents/111228_intervention_Syria_paper_.pdf Creating an internationally protected zone on partitioned land in Syria is indeed a form of military intervention. The creation and success of a safe area or partitioned zone should include Arab or Turkish participants as a matter of legitimacy (much the way Qatari intelligence was a part of the Libyan intervention), but it will nevertheless require the technical expertise, sophistication and expertise of major Western powers.
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A2 Military Assistance=> Syrian Support for Al Qaeda: This is exactly why we should topple the regime
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_documents/111228_intervention_Syria_paper_.pdf However, this long-tended marriage of convenience between Assads special intelligence and Al Qaeda-affiliated groups only further underscores the strategic imperative of toppling a dictatorship which uses terrorism as a tool of statecraft.
8000 Syrians have been killed thusfar

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/3/15%20syria%20saban/0315_syria_saban.pdf Actually ousting Asad, however, will not be easy. Although the Obama administration has for months called for Asad to go, every policy option to remove him is flawed, and some could even make the situation worse seemingly a recipe for inaction. Doing nothing, however, means standing by while Asad murders his own people, and Syria plunges into civil war and risks becoming a failed state. Already the violence is staggering: as of March 2012, at least 8,000 Syrians have died and thousands more have been arrested and tortured in trying to topple the regime.
If the violence intensifies without U.S. leadership Syrias situation will deteriorate further because their neighbors will increase their meddling
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/3/15%20syria%20saban/0315_syria_saban.pdf At the same time, Syria is fragmenting. The Syrian opposition remains divided, and the Free Syrian Army is more a brand than a meaningful, unified force. Al- Qaida is urging fighters to join the fray in Syria, and sectarian killings and atrocities are growing. Should the violence continue to intensify, Syrias neighbors may increase their meddling, and instability could spread, further weakening already-fragile neighbors like Iraq and Lebanon.
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Diplomacy will fail because Russia/China will not cooperate
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/3/15%20syria%20saban/0315_syria_saban.pdf But the biggest obstacle to international unity has been the position taken by Russia and China. Both have shown that they oppose regime change in Syria through international intervention, including on humanitarian grounds. Russias rhetoric stresses that it felt burned by the move from civilian protection to regime change in Libya, and makes known that it does not want to repeat this in Syria. The reasons behind Russias position are clear: Syria is Russias last remaining close Arab ally, and Moscow is not prepared to risk the political and economic losses in a post-Asad Syria that it suffered in Libya. . Russia, focused on its fight against Islamists in its southern underbelly in Chechnya and Dagestan, also worries that a post-Asad Syria will be dominated by Islamists, who would be hostile to Moscow. Finally, Moscow, along with Beijing, is determined to resist setting still another precedent that the international community has the right to interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, particularly one resolute on suppressing internal dissent however it sees fit.. Many experts believe that Russian and Chinese leaders fear that at some point they may have to do the same and they do not want to empower foreigners to meddle in their internal politics. For them, regime change through foreign dictate is not an option this time.
Even if diplomacy overcame the obstacles of China and Russia, it would still ultimately fail
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/3/15%20syria%20saban/0315_syria_saban.pdf However, even if diplomacy overcame all these obstacles, there is a significant chance that diplomacy alone would still fail. Asad and his loyalists have proven that they are willing to withstand growing international isolation. Indeed, they seem to care little about international legitimacy and have escalated their violence in the face of international opprobrium.
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Arming the rebels could lead to: a) a prolonged civil war/sectarian violence, we should instead continue with a diplomatic approach
Foreign Policy, Stephen Walt, What to do about Syria, April 11 2012,
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/04/11/what_to_do_about_syria
A second piece by Asli Bali of UCLA and Aziz Rana of Cornell, warns of the perils of this approach. While highly critical of Assad, they emphasize the danger of prolonged civil war and point out that a significant number of Syrians still worry as much about internal instability and sectarian violence as they do about Assad's brutalities. Accordingly, Bani and Rana favor an inclusive diplomatic process that avoids isolating Assad completely, in order to head off a destructive civil war.
Further defections are unlikely; the best armed and best trained divisions of the Syrian army are Alawite
Council on Foreign Relations, Eliot Abrams, American Options in Syria, October 2011, http://www.cfr.org/syria/american-options-syria/p26226 The regime's support rests in the Alawite community, the Alawite-led security forces, and the business community (Sunni as well as Alawite). Syria's population is 74 percent Sunni Muslim, while the Assad regime is Alawitean offshoot of Shiite Islam often considered heretical by orthodox Sunnisthat comprises only 10 percent or 15 percent of Syrians. The best-armed and best-trained divisions of the Syrian army are Alawite.
We shoudnt resort to military aid yet: Annan will know when its time to abandon diplomacy
James Traub, Foreign Policy Magazine, Enough Talking Kofi, May 25 2012, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/25/enough_talking_kofi The question is: When do you stop pursuing this low-probability game? When, if at all, do the risks of action become greater than the risks of inaction? The international community kept talking with the Serbs until the massacre at Srebrenica in July 1995 finally provoked a NATO bombing campaign. In Sudan, as in Rwanda, nothing happened until it was too late to make much of a difference. Annan knows this history all too well; it is his history. "He's been there before," says Fawzi, "and he will know when the time has come to pull the plug." Or maybe he won't. The United States and the EU have allowed Annan to decide when and whether his mission
has ceased to be useful; but Annans faith in diplomacy may wind up serving Assads interests more than those of the Syrian people.
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The opposition has been infiltrated by Al Qaeda
Jihad Watch, Director of National Intelligence says Al-Qaeda infiltrating Syrian Opposition, February 2012,
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/02/director-of-national-intelligence-says-al-qaeda-infiltrating-syrianopposition.html
Members of al-Qaeda have infilitrated Syrian opposition groups, and likely executed recent bombings in the nations capital and largest city, the United States top intelligence official said Thursday.
The current number of defected soldiers is not sufficient to topple the Assad regime if they are not organized in one command structure
Haaretz, Anshell Pfeffer, Syrian Rebel Leader to Harratz: Assads Opposition Will Secure Chemical Weapons, May 28 2012, http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/the-axis/syrian-rebel-leader-to-haaretz-assad-s-opposition-will-securechemical-weapons-1.433021 He says these numbers are still not sufficient to topple the Assad regime as they are not organized in one command structure, but commanded by separate committees in each of Syrias fourteen provinces. They also lack advanced weapons and missiles. In addition, few new conscripts have joined up this past year and the army as a result is not discharging soldiers who have completed the 18-month compulsory service period."
We should create a safe zone and enhance the oppositions unity before even considering arming the opposition
Foreign Policy, Josh Rogin, Kerry: Time to consider safe zones and arming the opposition in Syria, May 8 2012, http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/05/08/kerry_time_to_consider_safe_zones_and_arming_the_oppo sition_in_syria "The concept of a safe zone is a reality and worth the discussion. The concept of working with the Turks and the Jordanians, if everybody is on the same page, there could be some [military] training [of the opposition forces]. If we can enhance the unity of the opposition, we could consider lethal aid and those kinds of things," Kerry said.
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The Syrian opposition is too fragmented and incompetent to be an effective fighting force
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/3/15%20syria%20saban/0315_syria_saban.pdf That is the hope. The current reality is that the Syrian opposition forces are weak and despite a year of violence are finding it difficult to unite. Sect, ethnicity, region, strategy, and leadership all divide the opposition. They lack a unifying vision, a charismatic leadership, and an internal process to ensure all Syrian voices are represented. There is little, if any, coordination between elements operating in different parts of the country though their ability to continue protests in the face of horrific regime repression suggests that local organization remains impressive. The FSA, for its part, is currently poorly armed, disorganized, and divided from the broader political opposition movement. To make matters more complex, there is also a deep schism between FSA forces in Syria, doing the bulk of the fighting, and the FSA leadership outside it.
Empirically, supporting an opposition fosters instability but does not topple the target regime
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/3/15%20syria%20saban/0315_syria_saban.pdf In most cases, supporting an opposition ties down a countrys forces and fosters instability but does not topple the regime.
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The government has twice as many troops as the opposition

Haaretz, Anshell Pfeffer, Syrian Rebel Leader to Harratz: Assads Opposition Will Secure Chemical Weapons, May 28 2012, http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/the-axis/syrian-rebel-leader-to-haaretz-assad-s-opposition-will-securechemical-weapons-1.433021 Against the 30,000 soldiers fighting for the opposition, the government still has a number of loyal units, numbering around 70,000 soldiers.
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Further defections are unlikely

Haaretz, Anshell Pfeffer, Syrian Rebel Leader to Harratz: Assads Opposition Will Secure Chemical Weapons, May 28 2012, http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/the-axis/syrian-rebel-leader-to-haaretz-assad-s-opposition-will-securechemical-weapons-1.433021 Their loyalty is ensured twice-over. About 80 percent of the divisions soldiers and officers are Alawites and nearly 90% of them are career soldiers, in contrast to the conscripts who comprise most of the armys other units.
Haaretz, Anshell Pfeffer, Syrian Rebel Leader to Harratz: Assads Opposition Will Secure Chemical Weapons, May 28 2012, http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/the-axis/syrian-rebel-leader-to-haaretz-assad-s-opposition-will-securechemical-weapons-1.433021 Most of the units loyal to Assad are dominated by Alawite officers, says the opposition leader, but there are also Sunni officers and even generals. They have to work twice as hard at proving their fanatical loyalty. For example, the battalion commander who led the terrible attack on Baba Amr in Homs was a Sunni colonel. Assad has authorized even the most junior officer to shoot and kill senior officers on the slightest suspicion that they may be about to defect."
The rebels are already receiving weapons

James Traub, Foreign Policy Magazine, Enough Talking Kofi, May 25 2012, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/25/enough_talking_kofi It has now become very hard to imagine any solution to the Syria crisis which is not a terrible one. Though fewer people are dying per day than was true earlier this year, when security forces were besieging the town of Homs, the violent scenario to which Rice alluded is already a reality. According torecent reports, the rebels have begun to receive significant quantities of weapons from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood as well as training and equipment from Turkey. The Obama administration has admitted only to supplying communications equipment and other nonlethal assistance, but is said to be clandestinely helping direct arms to rebels forces. The White House, that is, appears to be reluctantly accepting the inevitability of civil war.
Air power would be ineffective at this point

Foreign Policy, Josh Rogin, Kerry: Time to consider safe zones and arming the opposition in Syria, May 8 2012, http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/05/08/kerry_time_to_consider_safe_zones_and_arming_the_oppo sition_in_syria Asked if there were any conditions under which he would support U.S.- or NATO-led airstrikes on the Syrian military, Kerry said, "Sure.""If Assad was killing his people in a continued massive way without any regard to his word, the truce, the inspections, and monitors, etc.," Kerry said, adding that we haven't yet gotten to that point."Of course the violence is continuing, but not in the kind of way that would suggest to you that airstrikes
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would make the difference," he continued. "There are a bunch of things that would need to start happening before you put that on the table."
The U.S. doesnt need to arm the rebels/set up a safe zone ourselves
Foreign Policy, Josh Rogin, Kerry: Time to consider safe zones and arming the opposition in Syria, May 8 2012, http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/05/08/kerry_time_to_consider_safe_zones_and_arming_the_oppo sition_in_syria Any effort to intervene directly in Syria should be Arab-led, Kerry said, but he denied the accusation that the United States is failing to lead or even "leading from behind," as many Republicans allege. "This failing to lead' refrain is just a political refrain," he said. "The United States doesn't have to go off and do everything to be the leader. Actually, it's pretty smart to get somebody else to do some things for you. You save the American taxpayer a few dollars, you don't put American troops at risk, and you get the job done."
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The Syrian opposition has to establish legitimacy before any foreign intervention into Syria is launched
The only government to formally recognize the SNC as Syrias government-in-exile -- or the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people -- is Libya. Other governments have established official representatives to liaise with the SNC, but thus far have not taken the step of full recognition. Furthermore, Western countries have repeatedly stated that recognition will not be granted until more internal organization takes place. The SNC must ensure that its legitimacy derives from a demonstrated willingness to respond to the needs, interests and demands of the Syrian people, who face the daily consequences of standing up to the regimes brutality. The legitimacy required to make any demands upon the international community, including intervention, on behalf of the Syrian people must be based on a consensus reached among the activists and communities who suffer under the ongoing crackdown.
The consensus in Washington is that coercive diplomacy is our best chance at bringing an end to the conflict
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/3/15%20syria%20saban/0315_syria_saban.pdf Patience is the watchword in Washington. Were all waiting for the thing that will crack them, an administration official recently said, referring to Asad and his clique. And it will be the economy that will wake everybody up.4 The logic of coercive diplomacy is that economic pressure will conspire with the continued unrest and the regimes international isolation so as to encourage defections from the military and other power centers. So far, sanctionsand escalating violencehave hurt Syrias economy, leading to a run on its currency, capital flight, and a collapse of many private businesses. As a result, Asad has lost support among some in Syrias middle class. However, the regime is finding work-arounds and is receiving financial support from Iran, offsetting the pressure somewhat. (In other cases, sanctions have at times actually strengthened autocratic regimes by concentrating economic power in their hands even as their countries economies have suffered.)
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The Syrian opposition is fragmented

The Syrian opposition continues to suffer from disunity, most importantly in the political movements lack of control over the armed component of the revolution the ex-Army forces now fighting the Assad regime. The current structure of the insurgency is atomized, hapless and beholden to no decisive authority. Many of these forces are housed in dozens of independent brigades, named either for historical figures or recent victims of the Syrian uprising, e.g., the Hamza al-Khatib Brigade or the Salaheddine Al-Ayoubi Brigade. In Western media portrayals, however, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is presented as the encompassing organization under which all rebel soldiers operate. Estimates for the total number of forces under the FSAs direct command range from 1,200 to 17,000, although senior FSA spokesmen claim the larger figure is correct.
Creating a safe zone in Syria to provide refuge/a center of gravity for the insurgency is the best option
Therefore, a multilateral intervention similar to Operation Provide Comfort and either led by NATO or by an AngloFrench-American-Turkish coalition would be the most feasible option for military intervention in Syria. At present, the most achievable option would be to establish a safe area in the country to provide refuge for embattled civilians from other cities and towns, a base of operations for the designated political leadership of the Syrian opposition as well as a military command centre -- in other words, a Syrian Benghazi. Without such a domestic hub for a transitional government, the opposition will find it incredibly difficult to formulate a long-term strategy, much less adaptable tactics, for toppling the regime. A cohesive physical space for freedom of movement within Syria is a necessary precondition for toppling the regime, if only to facilitate communication between the SNC and FSA as well as within the opposition more generally.
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The time is ripe for the establishment of a safe zone
There is currently a favourable window of opportunity for this option. The regular army has been exhausted due to its prolonged deployment in multiple urban and rural areas throughout the country. Morale among regular troops has plummeted and the ability of the regime to logistically sustain units other than the Special Forces and shabbiha militia is increasingly tenuous.
A safe zone would boost Syrian morale

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_documents/111228_intervention_Syria_paper_.pdf Although the psychological and strategic impact of a safe area cannot be quantified, it should not be dismissed nor underestimated. The boost to activists morale in knowing that a part of Syria has been unalterably liberated is likely to be significant, particularly in light of the fact that after nine months of facing brutality and traumatisation, the activists are still protesting daily. For similar reasons, the rate of military defections will likely increase if soldiers discover that, rather than living in exile in Turkey or Lebanon or Jordan (where their fate is uncertain), they have the option of repairing to a revolutionary headquarters.
Military assistance would result in the Syrian regime extending support to Al Qaeda
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_documents/111228_intervention_Syria_paper_.pdf The regime has in the past proved shrewdly willing to strike transactional alliances with Al Qaeda elements that operated across the border into Iraq. Syrian military intelligence would likely provide the necessary platform and encouragement for such elements as either a retaliatory measure or in order to bolster the regimes propaganda narrative that it is fighting extremist elements rather than a popular rebellion. The regime leverages its capacity to destabilize the region while recklessly sponsoring transnational terror groups as a way to blackmail the international community from taking resolute action
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States should have the authority to enforce immigration matters. Notes:
This resolution, inspired by the Supreme Court case regarding Arizonas infamous immigration law, asks teams to debate whether or not states should have the authority to enforce immigration matters (or battle illegal immigration. Since the resolution asks should states have this authority, arguments on the constitutionality of states taking immigration matters into their own hands are tangential at best; whether or not this power is justified does not necessarily correspond with whether or not states have the constitutional right to exercise this power.
Thus, teams should make arguments about the practicality and desirability of state laws. Con teams can argue that good immigration policy must be uniform and centralized, rather than fragmented. Pro teams will respond that state immigration laws only appeared because the federal government was not taking substantial strides to combat immigration, but this is false; the Obama administration has overseen a massive expansion in border patrol agents, military assets deployed at the border, and a record level of deportations. Furthermore, due to enforcement efforts and mediocre economic opportunity, illegal immigrant inflows have dramatically subsided as of late, mitigating any immigration harms forwarded by the Pro. Finally, the Con can argue that the federal government has not adopted comprehensive immigration reform partly because of the toxic political climate created by state laws, which turns their case.
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BidRoundBriefs Supplemental Debate Briefs NFL2012 PRO

State laws can self-correct for unconstitutional provisions/clauses with unintentional consequences
New York Times, Campbell Robertson, Alabama Governor Urges Changes to Latest Immigration Law, May 17 2012,http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/us/alabama-governor-urges-changes-to-latest-
immigration-law.html
Mr. Hammons proposal, which passed the House in April, addressed some of these complaints and altered some of the provisions that have been challenged as unconstitutional. It also included a measure, backed by business interests, that gave judges some discretion in levying the laws harsh penalties against businesses found to have employed illegal labor.
Since the Alabama law went into effect last summer, lawmakers have acknowledged what they call unintended consequences and for months have been discussing the scope and nature of changes to the law.
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States like Arizona are burdened with the consequences of illegal immigration, they should be able to take action to protect themselves
US News and World Report, Jon Feere, Obama Administration Doesnt want to Enforce the Immigration Laws, April 23 2012, http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/is-arizonas-sb-1070-immigration-law-
constitutional/obama-administration-doesnt-want-to-enforce-the-immigration-laws The federal government estimates that Arizona has one of the fastest growing illegal immigrant populations in the country, increasing from 330,000 in 2000 to 560,000 by 2008. As a result, the state has become a smuggling corridor burdened by violent crime, illegal hiring practices, significant fiscal costs, ID theft, and degradation of national parks. In an effort to alleviate these problems, Arizona passed a number of laws including SB 1070 which is designed to "discourage and deter" illegal immigration. The Supreme Court will likely hold that SB 1070 is consistent with Congress's intent to grant states some authority over immigration.
Arizonas law is not unconstitutional because they are not regulating immigration, they are merely helping the federal government carry out its responsibilities
constitutional/obama-administration-doesnt-want-to-enforce-the-immigration-laws
Arizona is not "regulating" immigration as its critics contend. If Arizona were unilaterally admitting or deporting aliens to and from the United States, certainly the state would be overstepping its authority. However, Arizona is simply assisting the federal government in carrying out its responsibilities. One would think that the White House would welcome the help, but that presupposes that the Obama administration actually wants the nation's immigration laws enforced.
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A2 White House says Arizona law conflicts with federal priorities: the Supreme Court ruled that Congress clear and manifest purpose should be controlling when preemption issues arise, and Congress has encouraged state action on immigration reform
In fact, the White House argues that its decision to not enforce immigration law in some instances effectively renders SB 1070 in conflict with federal priorities. But selective enforcement by the executive branch should not justify the law being preempted; the Supreme Court has held that it is Congress's "clear and manifest purpose" that should be controlling when preemption issues arise. And Congress has consistently welcomed state involvement in immigration matters. Congress created the 287(g) program, for example, which allows state and local officers to assist federal authorities in identifying and removing foreign nationals. Congress created the Law Enforcement Support Center in order to promote additional cooperation, and Congress has mandated that federal officials respond to all state inquiries. Though the White House may seek to limit immigration enforcement for political reasons, it cannot override the will of Congress.
The Supreme Court upheld state involvement with immigration recently when upholding Arizonas Everify law last year
The Supreme Court has upheld state involvement with immigration matters on a number of occasions, most recently when upholding Arizona's E-Verify law just last year. Since SB 1070 was written to complement federal law, it is likely that Arizona will once again be successful.
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The central provision of Arizonas immigration law affirms what Congress already presupposes; it is not unconstitutional
New York Times, Heather MacDonald, When the Feds Ignore the Law, April 22 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/22/how-states-should-approach-immigration/when-the-fedsignore-the-law To assist in this cooperation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service created the Law Enforcement Support Center to provide police officers and sheriffs deputies with information on the immigration status of aliens whom they may encounter, including during traffic stops. The central provision of Arizonas controversial law, S.B. 1070, affirms what Congress already presupposes: the power of local law enforcement officers to inquire into someones immigration status, including seeking information from the federal government. Under Section 2 of S.B. 1070, a police officer or sheriffs deputy can question someone about his immigration status and confirm that status with the Law Enforcement Support Center, but only if the officer has reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country illegally, and only if confirming the status is practicable. Such an inquiry may occur only during a lawful stop to investigate a nonimmigration Under Section 2 of S.B. 1070, a police officer or sheriffs deputy can question someone about his immigration status and confirm that status with the Law Enforcement Support Center, but only if the officer has reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country illegally, and only if confirming the status is practicable. Such an inquiry may occur only during a lawful stop to investigate a nonimmigration offense. Section 2 does not conflict with the federal governments authority over immigration matters and is thus constitutionally unproblematic
State laws follow from congressional intent

New York Times, Heather MacDonald, When the Feds Ignore the Law, April 22 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/22/how-states-should-approach-immigration/when-the-fedsignore-the-law Unfortunately, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton enjoined S.B. 1070 on the Justice Departments facial challenge, in flagrant violation of the exacting standards for such facial challenges, so we dont know how Arizona would have reacted to a federal request to release an illegal alien whom local officers had lawfully stopped. I would allow the law to operate, and in assessing its impact, would grant wide latitude to the states to follow through on Congressional intent that illegal aliens do not have the right to remain in the United States undetected and unapprehended.
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A2 x is bright line where states have no authority; throughout American history, the pendulum of states rights and federal power pertaining to immigration enforcement has swung back and forth
Tamar Jacoby, The New York Times, Let States Experiment, April 22 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/22/how-states-should-approach-immigration/states-shouldexperiment-on-immigration-policy The problem is we dont know. Throughout American history, the pendulum of states rights and federal power has swung back and forth, and not just on immigration. Today, were in the middle of a federalist revolution of historic proportions, with states across the country taking immigration lawmaking into their own hands and getting a yellow if not green light from the U.S. Supreme Court. This summer, the court will issue its second immigration opinion in two years, and I predict that again it will be at least a yellow light. So what are states to do? Virtually all the state immigration laws enacted in the last decade have been enforcement measures. Thats understandable; lawmakers and voters want to get control of illegal immigration.
State laws in areas which tangentially affect immigration which can be revoked for violations of federal immigration laws are expressly permissible
Office of Legal Research, Susan Price, State Versus Federal Power to Regulate Immigration, November 14 2007, http://www.cga.ct.gov/2007/rpt/2007-R-0621.htm In this context, state regulation of immigration means a state law or local ordinance that makes a determination of who should or should not be admitted into the country and the conditions under which a legal entrant may remain. State laws that tangentially affect immigration, such as employment licensing laws that can be revoked for violations of federal immigration laws, are expressly permissible.
States can complement federal immigration law or enforce additional or auxiliary regulations as long as it is consistent with the purpose of Congress
Office of Legal Research, Susan Price, State Versus Federal Power to Regulate Immigration, November 14 2007, http://www.cga.ct.gov/2007/rpt/2007-R-0621.htm The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution invalidates (preempts) state laws that interfere with or are contrary to federal law (Article VI, Cl. 2). With respect to immigration-related matters, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that:the regulation of aliens is so intimately blended and intertwined with responsibilities of the national government that where it acts, and the state also acts on the same subject, the act of Congress or treaty is supreme; and the law of the state, though enacted in the exercise of powers not controverted, must yield to it. And where the federal government, in the exercise of its superior authority in this field, has enacted a complete scheme of regulation.states cannot, inconsistently with the purpose of Congress, conflict or interfere with, curtail or complement, the federal law, or enforce additional or auxiliary regulations.
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Office of Legal Research, Susan Price, State Versus Federal Power to Regulate Immigration, November 14 2007, http://www.cga.ct.gov/2007/rpt/2007-R-0621.htm Acceptable Laws State and Local Employment Licensing Laws Federal immigration law expressly allows states and localities to independently regulate the employment of illegal aliens through licensing and similar laws. Its legislative history notes that the statute's reference to licensing encompasses lawful state or local processes concerning the suspension, revocation or refusal to reissue a license to any person who has been found to have violated the sanctions provisions of the federal law or licensing or 'fitness to do business laws,' such as state farm labor contractor or forestry laws, which specifically require such licensee or contractor to refrain from hiring, recruiting or referring undocumented workers (H.R. Rep. 99-682, 1986 USCCAN 5649, 5662). Enforcing Federal Immigration Laws It is also generally recognized that states and localities may enforce the criminal provisions of the Immigration and Nationalities Act (8 USC 1101, et seq.). For example, Section 1252(c) allows state and local law enforcement to arrest and detain aliens illegally present in the United States who have prior felony convictions. And under 287(g) of that law, the U.S. Attorney General is permitted to enter agreements with states and localities to permit their law enforcement officers to perform additional duties relating to immigration law enforcement. State and local enforcement efforts cannot impose new or additional penalties upon criminal immigration law violators. Denying Access to Federal Public Benefit Programs States that administer federal public benefits programs are permitted to follow federal rules for determining and verifying an applicant's citizenship/alienage status if that is a criterion for eligibility. Connecticut's attorney general recently ruled that while this rule is applicable to the Department of Social Services' administration of the federal Low Income House Energy Assistance Program, it is inapplicable to the community action agencies to whom the department had delegated the program's administrative functions. The agencies are not permitted to verify citizenship status (Attorney General Formal Opinion 2007-20). Denying Access to State Public Benefit Programs It appears that states can also limit access to state public benefit programs to people who are deemed qualified aliens under federal public benefit program laws. But laws and regulations targeting illegal aliens, which is not defined in federal law, may be preempted because they require state officials to make independent assessments of the legality of an applicant's presence in the United States (See generally, Feder and Gentile: Legal Analysis of Proposed City of Hazleton Illegal Immigration Relief Act Ordinance (Congressional Research Service, July 29, 2006)).
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Alabamas law is unconstitutional
The Justice Department has sued Alabama, arguing that the law is unconstitutional, and enforcement of some sections has been temporarily suspended by federal courts. Most of the law is now before the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which is holding off its ruling until the fate of Arizonas immigration enforcement law is decided by the Supreme Court. The justices are expected to issue a ruling by the end of June
The constitution makes absolutely clear that the federal government has the exclusive power to regulate immigration
The New York Times, Elizabeth Wydra, The Constitution Settles It, April 22 2012,
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/22/how-states-should-approach-immigration/theconstitution-limits-states-immigration-policy
The architects of our Constitution, like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, made it absolutely clear that the federal government has the exclusive power to regulate immigration, and to consider the foreign policy implications of how we treat noncitizens within our borders. While our federalist system provides for state diversity and innovation in many key areas, the Constitution unmistakably vests the power over immigration and naturalization, and related issues like border security and foreign relations, in the federal government. Arizonas decision to pursue a single-minded, aggressive, nondiscretionary policy of attrition through enforcement conflicts with the complex balancing act that the Constitution, Supreme Court precedent and specific congressional enactments have delegated to the executive branch.
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State cooperation with federal immigration enforcement is only valid if state and local officers have sufficient training and supervision
The New York Times, Elizabeth Wydra, The Constitution Settles It, April 22 2012,
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/22/how-states-should-approach-immigration/theconstitution-limits-states-immigration-policy
State and local governments, businesses located within the states and localities, and residents, of course, experience both the benefits and burdens of unauthorized migrants up close. These stakeholders perspectives are incredibly important to the national conversation on immigration reform. Congress has specifically allowed for state cooperation with federal immigration enforcement in certain areas provided, however, that such state and local officers have the sufficient training and supervision to enforce complex immigration regulations and the Supreme Court has upheld the authority of states to regulate in areas of traditional local concern, such as business licensing, that may affect noncitizens. But however important the voices of state and local officials in the debate, the Constitution makes clear that, when it comes to actually setting immigration law and policy, the United States must speak with one voice: the federal governments.
States already have constitutional tools to cope with illegal immigration; they do not also need the ability to implement enforcement measures
The New York Times, Cecilia Wang, For a Start, Enforce Existing Laws, April 22 2012,
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/22/how-states-should-approachimmigration/states-can-address-immigration-by-enforcing-existing-laws
States already have tools to address concerns frequently invoked in public debate over illegal immigration, such as public safety and job losses for citizens. They can handle public safety by enforcing state criminal laws and can remove employers incentives to hire undocumented workers by enforcing workplace protections and civil rights laws for all.
States can only assist the federal government in immigration enforcement where Congress has permitted and when under federal control; state laws do not follow this standard
States can assist the federal government in immigration enforcement only where Congress has permitted, and only under federal control
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State laws which preempt federal laws create a patchwork of clashing rules, making immigration enforcement more difficult
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/22/how-states-should-approachimmigration/states-can-address-immigration-by-enforcing-existing-laws .What states cannot do is implement laws like Arizonas that would against settled law give states power over complex federal immigration matters in radical new ways, creating a patchwork of clashing rules throughout the country.
Recent state laws invite racial profiling

Such laws target undocumented immigrants, but also cast a dragnet that harms citizens, lawful immigrants and everyones basic civil rights. Top law enforcement officials and a bipartisan group of former state attorneys general have said these laws force police officers to rely on how people look or sound to determine their immigration status, inviting racial profiling. They subject citizens and noncitizens alike to unlawful detention. They infringe on the right that people in America have long enjoyed to go about their business without unnecessary police intrusion.
When local police have draconian immigrant enforcement mandates, public safety is harmed because victims and witnesses are afraid to report crimes, and law enforcement resources are diverted from promoting public safety
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/22/how-states-should-approachimmigration/states-can-address-immigration-by-enforcing-existing-laws Anti-immigrant state laws actually harm public safety. When local police try to enforce immigration laws, victims and witnesses are afraid to report crimes, and scarce law enforcement resources are diverted from serious crimes.
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Alabama experienced a humanitarian crisis after parts of its law took effect, resulting in economic and reputational harm
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/22/how-states-should-approachimmigration/states-can-address-immigration-by-enforcing-existing-laws In Alabama, we witnessed a humanitarian crisis after parts of its extreme law took effect. Residents with long-standing community ties, including citizens, have been subject to discrimination; fear and suspicion have divided communities; and the state has suffered great economic and reputational harm.
The amount of illegal immigration today is only 1/3 of what it was 7 years ago
The New York Times, Julia Preston, Immigration Decreases but Tensions Remain High, March 10 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/us/illegal-migration-from-mexico-falls-but-local-fears-persist.html Federal officials met with state and local police departments on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Border Security Expo in the convention hall in downtown Phoenix. They broadly agreed that the decrease in illegal crossers down to about 340,000 migrants apprehended in 2011 from a peak of 1.1 million in 2005 has lightened the workload for the police, but has also brought worrisome changes in the type of crimes they confront.
Border security has undergone remarkable improvements
The New York Times, Julia Preston, Immigration Decreases but Tensions Remain High, March 10 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/us/illegal-migration-from-mexico-falls-but-local-fears-persist.html In a riposte, Jayson P. Ahern, a former top official at the Customs and Border Protection agency, described Ms. Brewers criticism as a very individualized opinion. Channeling many officials who were less outspoken because they are still in federal office, Mr. Ahern said border security had undergone remarkable improvements. He cited the expansion of the Border Patrol to more than 21,000 agents, the highest number in its history, and an array of new technology that is in use, including remote video surveillance systems and seven unmanned drones.
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Federal and local law enforcement are seeing huge drops in crime related to illegal immigration
The New York Times, Julia Preston, Immigration Decreases but Tensions Remain High, March 10 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/us/illegal-migration-from-mexico-falls-but-local-fears-persist.html The e impact of steep declines in the number of migrants illegally crossing the border with Mexico in recent years has rippled across Arizona and other border states, with federal and local law enforcement seeing big drops in crime related to illegal immigration. The New York Times, Julia Preston, Immigration Decreases but Tensions Remain High, March 10 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/us/illegal-migration-from-mexico-falls-but-local-fears-persist.html In Arizona, federal agents have found far fewer drop houses, where smugglers stash border crossers. Police chiefs in Arizona cities say their crime rates are low and are falling, along with the numbers and costs of illegal immigrants coming through their jails.
Obamas administration has overseen a record number of deportations
ABC News, Devin Dwyer, Obamas Record High Deportations Draw Hispanic Scorn, December 28 2011,
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/obamas-record-high-deportations-draw-hispanicscorn/
The record-setting deportation of illegal immigrants under President Obama has drawn scorn from Hispanic Americans, despite recent administration efforts to temper the policy, according to a new Pew Hispanic Center study. ABC News, Devin Dwyer, Obamas Record High Deportations Draw Hispanic Scorn, December 28 2011,
Since 2009, the annual average number of deportations has approached 400,000, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Thats double the annual average during President George W. Bushs first term and 30 percent higher than the average when he left office.
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The flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. has hit a decade low
ABC News, Devin Dwyer, Obamas Record High Deportations Draw Hispanic Scorn, December 28 2011,
Meanwhile, the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States has hit a decade low because of the down economy and stepped-up enforcement efforts.
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The U.S. tax code should abandon the existing deductions for charitable giving. Notes
This resolution slightly favors the Pro. Since the resolution only requires that the Pro abandon existing deductions and not all deductions the Pro has tremendous flexibility. They can run plans which revise our current deductionsa variety of which have been proposed and debated on the floors of Congressor that all charitable deductions should be eliminated. While the latter position solves for debt, nonprofit political inequality, and subsidy inequality, the former position solvesat least partiallyfor all of these harms without avoiding the only Con disadvantage (substantially less charitable giving). However, the Con can argue that since the resolution does not include the word replaceor any other words with a similar connotationthe Pro should not be allowed to run plans, or any other form of contingent advocacy. This would limit the debate to weighing battle between less giving, and reducing our deficit. The Con will want to rely on moral arguments which condemn the Pro for balancing the debt on the backs of the poor, and the Pro will want to rely on pragmatic arguments like we cant pay for the healthcare of the poor if we become further mired in debt.
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Explanation of Obamas plan
Washington Post, Phillip Rucker, Obama defends push to cut tax deductions for charitable donations, March 26 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032503103.html Under Obama's proposal, the tax deduction for those with incomes over $250,000 -- which is now 35 cents for each dollar donated -- would be limited to 28 percent. That would return the rate to where it was during President Ronald Reagan's administration.
Obama said the change would help equalize the tax break for those donating to charity. "When I give $100, I'd get the same amount of deduction as when some -- a bus driver who's making $50,000 a year, or $40,000 a year -- give that same $100," he said, adding that the provision would affect about 1 percent of Americans.
Funding education, clean energy technology, and health care reform will require increased revenues
Washington Times, Stephen Dinan, David R. Sands, Charity tax limits upset many, February 27 2009,
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/27/charity-tax-challenged-by-politicalfriends/?page=all By reaching so broadly with his $4 trillion 2010 budget plan, and the giant deficits it will incur, Mr. Obama put his hard-won election mandate on the line, saying if lawmakers want to do big things - from boosting education and clean energy technology to overhauling health care - they will have to find ways to pay for it.
The tax write off isnt the main reason people donate money
Washington Post, Phillip Rucker, Obama defends push to cut tax deductions for charitable donations, March 26 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032503103.html
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Still, Obama argued that the deduction is not the primary reason people donate to charities and that his proposal would not deter giving."Now, if it's really a charitable contribution, I'm assuming that that shouldn't be a determining factor as to whether you're giving that $100 to the homeless shelter down the street," he said.
Large income donors who make substantial contributions to very worthwhile enterprises would be dissuaded from donating
Washington Post, Phillip Rucker, Obama defends push to cut tax deductions for charitable donations, March 26 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032503103.html In Congress, members of both parties have spoken out against Obama's proposal since it was introduced last month. House
Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), in an interview on MSNBC, said: "That's going to
be controversial. And, obviously, charitable institutions will be -- have great concern. Clearly, one of their greatest concerns will be very, very large-income donors who make very substantial contributions to very worthwhile enterprises."
Social service groups that raise money in smaller amounts will not be heavily affected
Washington Post, Phillip Rucker, Obama defends push to cut tax deductions for charitable donations, March 26 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032503103.html Nonprofits such as universities and arts institutions that rely heavily on large donations from wealthy individuals are more likely to be affected by the administration's proposal than are food banks, shelters and other social service groups that raise money in smaller amounts.
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Obamas proposal will change donors behavior

Washington Post, Phillip Rucker, Obama defends push to cut tax deductions for charitable donations, March 26 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032503103.html Dean A. Zerbe, managing director of Alliant Group and a former senior tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee who closely tracks the nonprofit sector, said he has no doubt that Obama's proposal would change wealthy donors' behavior. "Of course it's going to affect behavior," he said. "The charities recognize that. Everyone does. . . . People just don't have their feet on their ground if they're not recognizing that reality."
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Simply limiting deductions for couples making more than 250k would raise 180 billion dollars over ten years
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/27/charity-tax-challenged-by-politicalfriends/?page=all Still, the charitable giving deduction reduction, which would limit deductions for couples making $250,000 or individuals making $200,000, provoked the most heat Thursday. Mr. Obama is counting on that provision to raise $179.8 billion over 10 years.
Raising funds is key to funding health-care reform

Washington Post, Phillip Rucker, Obama defends push to cut tax deductions for charitable donations, March 26 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032503103.html "Generally what keeps people giving is economic growth, increasing incomes and increasing prosperity, and in totality that's what this budget would do," Baer said. "This change is going to fund health-care reform, and constraining those costs is the single biggest thing we can do to put our country on a sustainable fiscal path and get this country going."
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Economic recovery will solve for any resulting shortfalls in charitable giving
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/27/charity-tax-challenged-by-politicalfriends/?page=all Contained in the recovery act, theres $100 million to support nonprofits and charities as we get through this period of economic difficulty, he said. He disputed that giving would drop, and said an economic recovery will help charities, too.
Charitable contributions would only drop by 1.3 percent under Obamas plan
Washington Post, Phillip Rucker, Obama defends push to cut tax deductions for charitable donations, March 26 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032503103.html But a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said total charitable contributions would decline by about 1.3 percent, while the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University calculated that overall giving would drop by 2.1 percent. The highest-income households would decrease their giving by 4.8 percent, or $3.87 billion, the latter group found.
Replacing the two tiered system for charitable deductions with a single tiered system would spur private foundations into giving more money to charity
Washington Post, Phillip Rucker, Obama defends push to cut tax deductions for charitable donations, March 26 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032503103.html In a move to create a new incentive for charitable giving, Democratic Carl M. Levin (Mich.) and
Sens. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.),
Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) said yesterday that they have introduced legislation
that would simplify the tax code to spur private foundations to give more money to charities. The bill would replace the current two-tiered system for taxing foundations on their investment income with a single tax rate, in part because lawmakers say the current system punishes foundations for years in which they give away more than usual.
Since social service groupslike food banks and sheltersraise money in smaller amounts, they would be insulated from legislation to reform our current charitable deduction system
Washington Post, Phillip Rucker, Obama defends push to cut tax deductions for charitable donations, March 26 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032503103.html
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Nonprofits such as universities and arts institutions that rely heavily on large donations from wealthy individuals are more likely to be affected by the administration's proposal than are food banks, shelters and other social service groups that raise money in smaller amounts.
Matching grant plan

The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Suzanne Perry, Deficit Plan would Eliminate Tax Deductions for Charitable Gifts, November 17 2010, http://philanthropy.com/article/Deficit-Plan-Would-Eliminate/125420/ A high-level committee that offered a plan for reducing the federal government's debt today issued a proposal that would radically change the way the tax code treats charitable gifts. The proposal would essentially eliminate the charitable tax deduction. In its place, all donations made by federal taxpayers would qualify for a 15-percent tax credit. But instead of that credit going to the taxpayer, it would be given to the charity receiving the donation in the form of a matching grant from the Internal Revenue Service. That setup would mean that when a donor wanted to give $100 to a nonprofit group, he or she could actually contribute $85. The government would cover the other $15, according to the proposal.
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The matching grant proposal would increase the number of taxpayers who receive a subsidy for charitable donations while reducing the subsidy rate for upper income taxpayers; this would equalize benefits while reducing the size of the federal deficit
The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Suzanne Perry, Deficit Plan would Eliminate Tax Deductions for Charitable Gifts, November 17 2010, http://philanthropy.com/article/Deficit-Plan-Would-Eliminate/125420/ The proposal, one of a wide range of recommendations on taxes and spending, aims to give all taxpayers the same benefits while reducing the size of the federal deficit. "Restructuring the charitable deduction will greatly increase the number of taxpayers who receive a subsidy for charitable donations but will reduce the subsidy rate for upper-middle-income and upper-income taxpayers who itemize," the report said.
The deductions for charitable gifts are perverse because they give the biggest subsidies to high income taxpayers
The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Suzanne Perry, Deficit Plan would Eliminate Tax Deductions for Charitable Gifts, November 17 2010, http://philanthropy.com/article/Deficit-Plan-Would-Eliminate/125420/ The plan, which was drafted by a 19-member committee of prominent Democrats and Republicans, called the way itemized deductions are currently structuredincluding those for charitable gifts"perverse" because they give the biggest subsidies to high-income taxpayers.
Only taxpayers with enough expenses can get the tax break, and people in higher tax brackets can write off a larger percentage of their income than those in lower brackets
The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Suzanne Perry, Deficit Plan would Eliminate Tax Deductions for Charitable Gifts, November 17 2010, http://philanthropy.com/article/Deficit-Plan-Would-Eliminate/125420/ Currently, only taxpayers who have enough qualified expenses to itemize their charitable contributions can get the tax break, and those in higher tax brackets can write off a bigger percentage of their income than those in lower brackets.
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Matching grants would encourage people to donate to charities favored by lower income people
The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Suzanne Perry, Deficit Plan would Eliminate Tax Deductions for Charitable Gifts, November 17 2010, http://philanthropy.com/article/Deficit-Plan-Would-Eliminate/125420/ The report says its proposal could broaden the pool of people who donate to charity but also change the composition of giving. "Charities favored by lower-income people (disproportionately religious organizations and organizations providing services for the poor) may benefit," it says.
Eliminating charitable tax deductions would reduce our debt by a quarter of a trillion dollars over the next decade
Los Angeles Times, Jack Shakeley, Its time to write off the charitable giving tax deduction,
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/18/opinion/la-oe-shakely-deduction-20111218
Psst: Want to know a way to reduce our national debt by a quarter of a trillion dollars over the next decade, and remove an often abused and possibly unconstitutional section of the tax code? Are you sure you do? You may want to sit down.
In order to receive tax deductible gifts, nonprofit corporations must relinquish their right to lobby
But almost a century after the charitable tax deduction was enacted, nobody can say positively, absolutely how much, or even if, it stimulates giving, which was its primary purpose. Moreover, in order to receive tax-deductible gifts, nonprofit corporations must become second-class corporate citizens they are not allowed to contribute to political campaigns, to lobby or to otherwise politically advocate for the very constituencies they were created to serve.
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While the cost of giving among the wealthy has gone up, contributions have failed to decline
This is a logical and often-used argument, but statistics don't necessarily bear it out. The deduction follows tax brackets, and the top tax bracket for individuals has gone down from 70% in 1980 to 50%, then to 39%, then to the current 35% in 2003. The cost of giving, at least among the wealthy, went up as the top bracket went down, so contributions should have declined. But they didn't.
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Charitable donations over the last 25 years have remained rock solid
According to data collected by the Giving USA Foundation, charitable donations over the last 25 years have remained solid as a rock, hovering between 1.7% and 1.95% of personal income year in and year out. If giving didn't decrease when rates went from 70% to 35%, why would it go down by lowering the rate to 28%?
Providing federal subsidies to church donations is arguable unconstitutional

In retrospect, having Oaks testify might seem a curious choice. Providing federal subsidies to what goes in church offering plates is the elephant in the living room of the charitable deduction. Many consider the federal underwriting of donations to religious institutions a violation of the clause forbidding the establishment of religion under the 1st Amendment, a practice that knocks a hole in Thomas Jefferson's "wall of separation between church and state." But as with "In God We Trust" on the quarter, we've been winking and nodding our way around this for decades.
People use the charitable donations tax deduction to fraud the government out of billions of dollars each year
It's impossible to put a precise number on the abuses, but when it comes to federal revenues, they are the equivalent of death by a thousand cuts the phantom $20 bills in the offering plate, a deducted auction item here and a gala fundraising dinner there (it's not legal to deduct a donation if you get goods or a dinner of equal value in return), a donated car that goes from clunker to Blue Book "good" overnight it adds up to billions of dollars every year.
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The net result of limiting charitable deductions would be less philanthropic giving
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/27/charity-tax-challenged-by-politicalfriends/?page=all Roberton Williams, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, said its impossible to calculate the exact effects of all the tax changes, but said the overall result is clear - less philanthropic giving. This will lead people to give less to charities if they behave the way theyve behaved in the past, he said. Weve already seen a drop in giving as a result of the economic collapse. On top of that, this will just reduce the amount of giving.
Simply cutting tax deductionsnot eliminating themcould result in a drop of 3.87 billion dollars in donations to the non-profit sector
Washington Post, Phillip Rucker, Obama defends push to cut tax deductions for charitable donations, March 26 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032503103.html President Obama defends his proposal to cut the tax deductions that wealthy Americans can claim for their charitable donations by arguing that the shift would not have an adverse effect on giving, but two independent analyses concluded that the proposal could result in a drop of as much as $3.87 billion for the already reeling nonprofit sector.
Reducing charitable tax deductions would hurt universities

Washington Post, Phillip Rucker, Obama defends push to cut tax deductions for charitable donations, March 26 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032503103.html House Minority
Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement yesterday that limiting charitable
tax deductions to 28 percent "is absolutely the wrong thing to do. The administration should reverse course on this reckless policy that will hurt too many universities, churches and other charitable organizations."
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Obamas proposal would surely change the behavior of wealthy donors

Washington Post, Phillip Rucker, Obama defends push to cut tax deductions for charitable donations, March 26 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032503103.html Dean A. Zerbe, managing director of Alliant Group and a former senior tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee who closely tracks the nonprofit sector, said he has no doubt that Obama's proposal would change wealthy donors' behavior. "Of course it's going to affect behavior," he said. "The charities recognize that. Everyone does. . . . People just don't have their feet on their ground if they're not recognizing that reality."
A2 Matching Grants: Charities need cash now, they cant wait for the end of the year to receive the matching grant
The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Suzanne Perry, Deficit Plan would Eliminate Tax Deductions for Charitable Gifts, November 17 2010, http://philanthropy.com/article/Deficit-Plan-Would-Eliminate/125420/
What a sad day it will be for all non-profits in the United States if this plan is passed! Our small nonprofit relies on an array of government and private funding. This plan would create havoc for us if we had to wait for funds to come from the US Government instead of 100% of the donation coming directly from our donors. I definitely agree with other comments this will have very serious consequences for all non-profits, especially the small non-profits who rely on daily donations for paying basic bills such as heat, water, electric, rent and mortgage. I don't think the people making these decisions have a clue how very desperate some of the non-profits are right now ---- we are waiting on every donation received in the mail in order to ensure that we are able to deliver quality services to the families and children we serve so they can have a better life---let alone maintain the bare minimum that they are holding onto right now!
If Obamas plan was passed, donors would withhold enough donations to cover the tax
Obama studied the variations and decided that what we currently have is good enough, but he suggested that Congress get more money into federal coffers by lowering the deduction that those earning $200,000 or more can claim against their charitable donations, from 35% (the top rate of federal income tax) to 28%. That didn't sit well with the philanthropic sector. So in October, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) held Senate Finance Committee hearings on the charitable deduction and, predictably, got an earful. First United Way of America's Brian Gallagher issued the stern warning that if the top deduction were reduced from 35% to 28%, "you should expect that donors will simply withhold the difference to cover the tax."
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