Supreme Court ruling bolsters Fourth Amendment
Even motorcycles parked near the house are covered by the Fourth Amendment.
Even motorcycles parked near the house are covered by the Fourth Amendment.
The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a privacy rights case that could determine whether the Fourth Amendment
protects the data that cell phone companies store about our phone use can be accessed by
A reminder, from Mark Fitzgibbons, that we are a nation of laws, and how the supposed guardian of the laws -- our government -- increasingly treats those laws with contempt.
Federal, state, and local law enforcement have crossed into dangerous territory, thanks to asset forfeitutre laws. They now take more from the public than criminals do:
We've written a great deal about the federal government's abuse of our Fourth Amendment rights through its repeated use of warrantless searches. Now we learn the abuses reach beyond the usual suspects -- the NSA, FBI, and CIA -- and include the IRS:
Federal agencies have shown a shocking eagerness to use administrative subpoenas -- search warrants that do not require a judge's approval. These subpoenas subvert the Fourth Amendment. According to this item from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the tide may be turning, just a bit, against government snoops:
The federal government's increasing use of subpoenas without first getting a warrant -- let alone asking a judge to consider the matter -- is generating a lot of pushback from civil libertarians and conservatives. And rightly so. The fed's latest targets are private medical records: