The Right of the People to be Secure in their Persons, Houses, Papers and Effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon PROBABLE CAUSE by Oath
or Affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons to be seized…
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
A report released by the major mobile phone networks in the USA – a Country that still pretends to protect its citizen/subjects from unreasonable search and seizure – shows a shocking uptick in requests by law enforcement agencies for mobile phone data.
And not surprisingly, most law enforcement agencies do not provide a proper warrant.
As Gomer Pyle might say, “Surprise, Surprise”
The New York Times reported that US Mobile Companies responded to an astounding 1.3 million requests – that they’ll admit to – from law enforcement agencies requesting user data.
You may ask, "Doesn’t my network protect my data?" However the phone companies now charge law enforcement for the data and are turning a PROFIT supplying it.
Do you think they care about the integrity of the 4th Amendment? Doubtful.
AT&T now fields over 700 such requests a day! Of which 30 are considered “emergency” and don’t require a warrant.
Now I went to Washburn in Topeka for Law School – not some hoity toity Ivy League School like Yale– but I still never saw the “emergency” exception in the 4th Amendment.
We are a Nation of LAWS and Government needs to follow them too.
I know, I know. When the Country is bankrupt it’s of the utmost importance to stop the drug trade. We would never want to do anything weird like tax and legalize a commodity that many Americans crave and that the Government could turn a profit on!
That would be Common Sense.
Where is Tom Paine when you need him?
All of our rights are leaving this GREAT Nation because of the drug trade.
That’s the Government’s rationale for trashing the 4th Amendment and all our rights. We have to rid the streets of narcotics!
Whatever.
I know that drugs are VERY harmful- but are they worth losing our Country over? Shouldn’t addiction be treated as a public health issue and not a criminal justice issue?
Some of you may think that “terrorists” are the reason for all these requests.
Read the PATRIOT Act – it includes Meth Interdiction.
If terrorists are meth dealers – the MidWest must be worse than Baghdad…
Not only does the 4th ammendment no mention emergency exceptions, the definition of emergency keeps getting larger.
You also talk about the war on drugs. The founders never intended a role of government to be protecting us from ourselves. Now they even want to tell us what to eat and drink if we will let them. We can all agree that drugs, smoking, excessive drinking, excessive eating, too much sugar, riding without a helmit, not wearing a seatbelt, etc. are bad for us but is it the role of government to be our nanny. What happened to freedom?
Fourth Amendment went by the boards
a long time ago, when SupCo approved DUI checkpoints.
Benjamin Franklin once said that
anyone who is willing to give up their freedom for security deserves and will have neither. He was right. All of these things done to supposedly make us more secure have done the opposite. Enough is enough!
To see or not to see?
In theory I don’t have a problem with this. If the Feds want they can come live with me. All things like this do is separate the dumb criminals from the really smart ones who will figure out a way to communicate outside the reach of law enforcement. It’s Darwins Law Enforcement. Don’t do anything wrong and you’ve got nothing to worry about. It’s not like your every moment at work isn’t monitored in some way shape or form.
If you wanna stop the drug trade just go the Singapore route and start hanging people every Friday with the executioners statement, I’m sorry, but I’m sending you to a better place.
Legalization will just bring more violence. The drug cartels aren’t going to give up the biggest market in the world for drugs to big Pharma and big tobacco. They’ll target execs and employees for execution. Law enforcement is not set up to deal with that kind of threat so in comes the military which just adds more insult to injury to freedom and liberty.
Unfortunately when you have a society full of buffoons and ner do wells this kind of interdiction is required, not to protect us from ourselves, but from the collective “them”.
In addition to the blackterial infection our nation is suffering from this is just one more issue that is nudging us closer to some old school civil unrest which is my ultimate goal anyway. Whether the revolution is televised or not the winners will be those who fear God, own gold and shoot guns.
I am so happy teh
guberment is here to protect me from myself.
I is so stupid and blissful, tank you gubment for these keyboard mittens and warrantless wiretapping, and the black box rooms in all of the phone companies.
Tank you!