Tag Archives: Fourth Amendment

They Really Do Need a Stinking Warrant – Good News for the Fourth Amendment

22 Friday Jun 2018

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Today comes a reversal of a sad trend I’ve been following, here, since at least June of 2016. I’ve rarely been happier about being wrong – I had predicted an affirmance.

Yet, I was right about the overall trend against freedom:

The worn-out line of the sheep goes: “If you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.” Two problems there: 1) you don’t know what they consider “wrong”, and; 2) how about when the government is wrong? What then? Move to a freer country? There are at least ten out there – one right next door to the U.S. Sit in your house and do absolutely nothing? That can be considered an indication of criminal intent or an invitation for a “welfare check-in” by the police.

The odds are you do not have anything to worry about. Obey the government in general, don’t make any waves, and they will probably leave you alone. Probably was not what the Founders had in mind with the Bill of Rights though. They desired protection from ALL government overreach.

Today, the Supreme Court put this issue to rest in a 5-4 decision upholding the right against unreasonable searches. Thank you, Justice Roberts and the Liberals.

2. The Government did not obtain a warrant supported by probable
cause before acquiring Carpenter’s cell-site records. It acquired
those records pursuant to a court order under the Stored Communications
Act, which required the Government to show “reasonable
grounds” for believing that the records were “relevant and material to
an ongoing investigation.” 18 U. S. C. §2703(d). That showing falls
well short of the probable cause required for a warrant. Consequently,
an order issued under §2703(d) is not a permissible mechanism for
accessing historical cell-site records. Not all orders compelling the
production of documents will require a showing of probable cause. A warrant is required only in the rare case where the suspect has a legitimate
privacy interest in records held by a third party. And even
though the Government will generally need a warrant to access
CSLI, case-specific exceptions—e.g., exigent circumstances—may
support a warrantless search. Pp. 18–22.

819 F. 3d 880, reversed and remanded.

Carpenter v. The Empire, No. 16–402, 585 U. S. ____, at Slip. 3-4 (June 22, 2018).

THE WHOLE OPINION

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cnet.com.

Good news to start the hot weekend.

More good news: TPC is now available in print!

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TPC/MBM/Facebook.

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The Harvey Weinstein School of Airport Security

26 Saturday May 2018

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Chris Deaton of The Weekly Standard related his recent involvement in the war on freedom terror. Everything except a reach-around at Hartsfield-Jackson:

Ludicrous.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s John McCormack wrote last September about his interaction with the TSA’s new “enhanced” pat-down procedure, wherein an agent “runs his hand inside a passenger’s waistband and also runs his hand up the back of each leg until he ‘meets resistance’ and then does the same from the front of each leg.” John (who is among the most genial people humankind is capable of producing) was randomly selected for his inspection.

I, on a recent trip from Jackson-Hartsfield International, was not. The advanced imaging technology (AIT) scanner at the security checkpoint detected something amiss on my person. As ProPublica reported in 2011, “Any potential threat is indicated by a yellow box that shows up roughly where the software detected it—on the right ankle, for example, or the left elbow.” For me, it was my back.

It follows that isolating such an area would allow travelers to forgo the unpleasant experience of being felt up indiscriminately—or, as John wrote, “right over the zipper area of one’s Gap Outlet comfort-stretch khakis.” If the imaging produces a yellow box only over the back, and an agent explains it as such, then clearly the back is the place of concern. The person already has held the mid-jumping-jack pose inside the fancy photo booth and had all other bodily areas, including the left ankle, the head-shoulders-knees-and-toes, and the crotch, cleared for takeoff.

And yet.

Just the same as John and doubtless thousands of other individuals, a professional, shall we say thorough TSA inspector explained to me how he was going to run his hands inside my waistband (which, the imaging resulting in what it did, is arguably passable)—but also run them up and down my legs, in a manner of unwelcome and quite awful foreplay. As part of the sheeple, I allowed the employee to proceed without objection, as well as swab my fingers, and continued on my way after being green-lit several moments thereafter.

They do this to women, children, the elderly, the infirm, and maybe even to service animals. For his part, the key statement in Deaton’s writing was: “As part of the sheeple, I allowed the employee to proceed without objection.” Part of the sheeple.

Here, I pause to wonder if one can request that an attractive female agent do the molesting. Eight or nine, that’s just fine! Probably not. Anyway…

In Washington, District of Corruption, under some heavy glass, appropriately housed relatively near dinosaur bones and other relics of the ancient past, there lies an old, worn, and completely disregarded piece of paper. There are words scribbled on it for those who can still read. Some of them say: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…”

Get it? Used to be “shall not be violated;” now it’s “violated like your on Harvey’s casting couch.” You are the punch line. Baa. Baa. Baaaaaa.

After the sexual assault, one then gets to sit next to an obese lunatic with an attitude, watch some drunk pee on a seatback, and hear someone cry about their dead prize rabbit. Then they regrettably inform you your luggage is elsewhere, your connecting flight is delayed, and, here, have ten dollars in free drinks and peanuts at the local bar. But, hey, you get all those points. Maybe you’re a “trusted” ewe traveler.

Please do fly commercial. At your own risk. Sheeple.

If they ever commence this foolishness in general aviation or on the highways, then you’ll likely read about that too. Probably on one of those posters at the post office.

Airport-Security

702 to Mordor

11 Thursday Jan 2018

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About a year ago Donald Trump raised a small ruckus when he asserted (as always, by Tweet…) that the previous administration had surveilled him at Trump Tower. The pooh-pooh heads pooh-poohed the idea. Andrew Napolitano was temporarily canned over the issue from Legs News. Then, it turned out to be true.

I and others pointed out, at the time, that Trump was far from the only American suffering from a good, old-fashioned trampling of his Fourth Amendment rights. Now, as then, few care. (There are 16 of us, at the least.)

But, now, there is a slim chance that Congress could act to remove one of the illicit tools of domestic surveillance – Section 702 of the Fisa Amendments Act. It’s set to expire. God, please let it.

A yearslong debate over National Security Agency surveillance and protections for Americans’ privacy rights will reach a climactic moment on Thursday as the House of Representatives takes up legislation to extend a program of warrantless spying on internet and phone networks that traces back to the Sept. 11 attacks.

There is little doubt that Congress will extend an expiring statute, known as Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, that permits the government to collect without a warrant from American firms, like Google and AT&T, the emails and other communications of foreigners abroad — even when they are talking to Americans.

But it is far from clear whether Congress will impose significant new safeguards for Americans’ privacy. A bipartisan coalition of civil-liberties-minded lawmakers are trying to impose such changes, while the Trump administration, the intelligence community and House Republican leadership oppose them.

I predict that, regardless of what Congress does or does not do today, that warrantless spying and other illegalities will continually be visited upon the people. We’ve reached that point and there’s really no going back.

Still, as Cliven Bundy will tell you, a little legal victory is a nice thing. Let’s have one!

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And that’s okay, too; no money and closed offices makes it harder to spy on us. Fox/YouTube.

Another Rare (Odd) Victory for the Fourth Amendment

22 Friday Sep 2017

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Another court has quashed the warrantless use of “Stingray” devices by the police.

A device that tricks cellphones into sending it their location information and has been used quietly by police and federal agents for years, requires a search warrant before it is turned on, an appeals court in Washington ruled Thursday. It is the fourth such ruling by either a state appeals court or federal district court, and may end up deciding the issue unless the government takes the case to the U.S. Supreme Court or persuades the city’s highest court to reverse the ruling.

The case against Prince Jones in 2013 involved D.C. police use of a “StingRay” cell-site simulator, which enables law enforcement to pinpoint the location of a cellphone more precisely than a phone company can when triangulating a signal between cell towers or using a phone’s GPS function. Civil liberties advocates say the StingRay, by providing someone’s location to police without court approval, is a violation of an individual’s Fourth Amendment right not to be unreasonably searched. The D.C. Court of Appeals agreed in a 2 to 1 ruling, echoing similar rulings in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals and federal district courts in New York City and San Francisco.

For those only concerned with “law and order,” this was just a case of bad police work. That is why all of their evidence and any hope of subsequent conviction is gone. The perp had two stolen cellphones in his possession, either of which could have been tapped with explicit permission. Instead, they opted to spy directly on the bad guy’s phone, sans the warrant. You get what you pay for – or skip.

As a victory, I’m sure there is a technological way around all of this anyway. That, or the Supremes will ultimately find that such illegal spying is really just a tax or something.

For now, it’s another small victory for the Bill of Rights.

More on the Former Fourth Amendment in America

06 Wednesday Sep 2017

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The esteemed John Whitehead correctly comments on the demise of law and order in Neo-America:

“The Fourth Amendment was designed to stand between us and arbitrary governmental authority. For all practical purposes, that shield has been shattered, leaving our liberty and personal integrity subject to the whim of every cop on the beat, trooper on the highway and jail official.”—Herman Schwartz, The Nation

Our freedoms—especially the Fourth Amendment—are being choked out by a prevailing view among government bureaucrats that they have the right to search, seize, strip, scan, shoot, spy on, probe, pat down, taser, and arrest any individual at any time and for the slightest provocation.

Forced cavity searches, forced colonoscopies, forced blood draws, forced breath-alcohol tests, forced DNA extractions, forced eye scans, forced inclusion in biometric databases: these are just a few ways in which Americans are being forced to accept that we have no control over our bodies, our lives and our property, especially when it comes to interactions with the government.

Worse, on a daily basis, Americans are being made to relinquish the most intimate details of who we are—our biological makeup, our genetic blueprints, and our biometrics (facial characteristics and structure, fingerprints, iris scans, etc.)—in order to clear the nearly insurmountable hurdle that increasingly defines life in the United States: we are now guilty until proven innocent.

The new police state, your Constitution be damned (or responsible).

Read John’s examples – from across America. These are things that anyone could expect to encounter in everyday life.

The kids, almost all of them – some 900, at Worth County (government) High School in Sylvester, Worth County, Georgia found out about the tyranny the hard way. One bright day they were ALL summoned into the hallways and strip-searched, many sexually assaulted. This warrantless and baseless intrusion was the work of Sheriff Jeff Hobby whose hobby seems to be violating civil rights.

The illegal search, unannounced to school officials, was loosely based on the unsubstantiated suspicion that three (3) of the 900 students MAY have been involved with narcotics. So, rather than investigate those three, Hobby and his gang of statist enforcers attacked all the children. No drugs or other problems were found.

You see, dear low-IQ, overweight morons of America, these young people did nothing wrong, yet they definitely had something to worry about. Something akin to rape in some cases.

The busybody idiots still fighting the “Civil” War could take up this incident as a cause. Statistically, some third of the students, maybe more, had to be black. However, it must be more important to yank down 140-year-old statutes and assorted road signs. Progress.

Some are fighting back. In a more genteel age, Hobby may have had a date with a local tree and/or some gasoline. Today, he finds himself the first defendant in a 1983 action in federal court, courtesy of the Southern Center for Human Rights. Read the Complaint.

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Serving and protecting the children by molesting them…

Read it and weep. I look for an insurance or bond settlement in that case. But there will be no end, no reversal, in the trend against personal liberty. The state is just getting started. Most seem a-okay with it.

You?

Implied Consent to Violate the Fourth Amendment

29 Thursday Jun 2017

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New York and a few other States move to make illegal searches and seizures of your smartphone “legal.” For the children and such…

New York — “Any person who operates a motor vehicle in the state shall be deemed to have given consent to field testing of his or her mobile telephone and/or personal electronic device for the purpose of determining the use thereof while operating a motor vehicle, provided that such testing is conducted by or at the direction of a police officer.”

That’s language from the text of a bill currently working its way through the New York state legislature. The legislation would allow cops to search through drivers’ cell phones following traffic incidents — even minor fender-benders — to determine if the person was using their phone while behind the wheel.

Most states have laws banning the use of mobile devices while driving, though such laws are rarely enforced. This is largely because it’s nearly impossible to catch someone in the act. What person would admit to an officer that they broke the law, the argument goes, particularly when it’s after the fact? After all, cops don’t show up until after the accident occurs.

Now, technology exists that would give police the power to plug drivers’ phones into tablet-like devices — being called “textalyzers” in the media — that tell officers exactly what they were doing on their phone and exactly when they were doing it. And if the readout shows a driver was texting while driving, for instance, the legal system will have an additional way to fine them.

Locking lead boxes, folks.

Fake-Cell-Phone-Tower

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The Obvious

14 Tuesday Mar 2017

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I cover a good range of topics here, from how bad government is to how good cigars are. Actually, that is pretty much the blog. Anyway, I touched on some things recently and made some wishy-washy predictions. As usual, they came true, are coming true. It’s obvious:

1. BREXIT

When was it? January? A British Court declared more obnoxious process was necessary, via Parliament, to slow the exiting demanded by voters – reverse “democracy”. BREXIT was never supposed to happen last summer. It did. I said nothing would stop BREXIT. Nothing is stopping BREXIT.

2. I’ve been on Congress and the GOP to fix ObamaCare or else rid us of it. They’re doing something – slow as usual. The CBO just analyzed the GOP replacement/amendment Bill. I’ve seen this reported a number of ways, usually as a scare tactic about people losing coverage. Some will, but it will be because they want to. And they won’t be taxed for it. The CBO concludes prices will come down and normalize within a few years – even as federal deficit spending on the failure decreases. The WSJ reports.

3. NBC News was shocked to discover DHS is illegally searching American citizens at the border and as they reenter the country. Naturally NBC found as poor-Muslims angle to work, though their reported test case was the exception to their demographic presentation (consistency, that). I covered this previously. Nothing new – and not limited to the borders. As I said, I can kind of see the border searches (especially of the questionable). It’s the interior harassment that gets me. But, also as I reported, there are ways around that.

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Harassment of the traditional America, another gift of 1965. NBC.

Get it here a week, a month, or five years in advance. Or, wait for the MSM to catch up. he choice is obvious.

The Border of the Fourth Amendment

02 Thursday Mar 2017

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“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, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

-U.S. Constitution, Amend. IV

Persons, their papers and effects, safe from search and seizure. Warrants. Freedom. America. Civility. Constitution. Rights.

Ancient. History. Gone, my friends. Read on: the “border” of the 4th Amendment:

Over the last decade, tens of thousands of visitors to the US – plus US citizens and residents returning home – have been subjected to warrantless border searches of their electronic devices.

Border officials may seize, search, and copy the contents of any such device. There’s no arrest, warrant, or even probable cause required – just “gimme.” And activists claim that since the inauguration of President Trump, this practice is becoming increasingly common.

While the majority of searches seem to occur when entering the US, border officials also have the authority to search electronic devices before you leave the country. In some cases, you may even be asked to log into your social media and email accounts and allow border officials to peruse their contents.

And that’s not all. In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it would apply these rules not just at the “border,” but also within 100 miles of any border crossing. In other words, many of America’s largest cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Francisco are also effectively “constitution-free zones.” So is any city with an international airport.

While I haven’t heard of warrantless electronic device searches outside actual entry points into the US, between October 2008 and June 2010, 6,500 persons had their electronic devices searched along the US border, according to the DHS records.

In most legal challenges to this practice, federal courts have essentially rubber-stamped these policies. Even if you take the precaution of encrypting the contents of your electronic devices (highly recommended), border officials may demand the password.

…

The border and incoming arrivals I can kind of see. Don’t like it, but I can see it. It’s the 100-mile radius and the interior aspects that call up my inner Lexington and Concord here. While I have not heard of DHS (to protect us from CIA-bred terrorists, remember) searching phones or laptops in the interior, I have heard of their checkpoints, random places on the highway and nowhere near any border.

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These aren’t the civil rights you’re looking for. Lucas Film / 20th Century Fox / YouTube.

Please read Nestmann’s full article. He gives some great tips for surviving these ordeals. He mostly recommends encryption and throw-away devices. Sage wisdom. And, as he notes, you may forget legal challenges. Constitutional protections are only afforded terrorist “refugees” now. You. Don’t. Count. Anymore. Pay your taxes and shut up!

Mr. Trump really has precious short time to Make America Great Again, if he can. Nestmann’s digital dodges work fine for now. There’s always a temporary and relatively easy way around tyranny when it starts. The rifles come out a little later.

Eric Peters on How We Got Here

23 Monday Jan 2017

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This weekend the moms got mad and marched on Washington. Well, probably not so many moms – they have families to manage. Mad women. Womyn. Unhinged, incoherent, blue-haired womyn. Demanding something. Razors or bombing the White House or something. Demonstrating their collective right to litter freely.

Peters launched his own protest against actual lost rights, specifically the Fourth and Fifth Amendments as applied to motoring.

America is in trouble because Americans got lazy. Not so much physically but morally. They began to care more about some passing thing than about the things that truly matter; the things that made America unlike other places.

Better than other places.

Things like principles; the plain meaning of words. The Fourth and Fifth Amendments, especially. Which were (past tense deliberate) laws written to articulate and protect principles that matter.

…

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No clovers. EPAutos.

Worth a read. And we’re only some 30 or so years into this madness. There is still time to reverse it. That is, if we care to. This will require getting off the mental couch. Ours, not the blue-hairs’ “mental” couch.

Better Not Get Hurt

11 Saturday Jun 2016

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There was a kindly gentleman a few years ago who wanted to bring healthcare to the masses. It was his dream not no American should go without medical insurance and care. I think his name was Hussein Obama. Maybe it was Barry something. Anyway, he convinced Congress to pass a law. The law did nothing to help the uninsured or those without access to doctors. What it did do was raise taxes and health insurance rates and made a lot of money for big insurance. Ah well, it’s the lie … the thought that counts, right? People needed healthcare.

Part of healthcare usually involves seeing a doctor for some sort of treatment. Sometimes the physician prescribes medication for a patient in the course of ameliorating an ailment. This is where things get funny.

Marlon Jones, one of the millions deeply cared about by Barry Whatshisname, saw his doctor about some knee pain. Jones received a double knee replacement as a result. The surgery caused considerable discomfort for which Jones was prescribed pain medication. Fits the narrative above, eh? Now the funny part.

Jones was arrested and charged with 14 felony drug and fraud charges. One can only imagine how amused he when they were handcuffing him. Ha ha. Jones was a fire chief in Utah. His friend, the police chief, told him the arrest was to “help” him. Very nice.

The state police targeted Jones after reviewing the state’s Prescription Drug Monitor Program database. The database was created under a nefarious law in order to allow the tracking and harassment of citizens in such fashion. Prescriptions and other medical information are supposed to be protected and private material for the use of doctors, patients, and pharmacists. HIPPA was another law enacted to help keep this information private. Why have a database and why allow (warrantless) fishing expeditions into it?

This isn’t just a Utah problem. Many (most?)(all?) states have such databases. Some protect the information. Others use it as Utah does for witch hunts. The feds desperately want in on the fun.

The Department of Justice [SIC] is linking all the state databases together into a super-system. The DEA wants access so they can do what Utah does on a national scale – ruin lives in larger numbers and faster. They have a few roadblocks.

In 2012 Oregon sued the federal government arguing that the personal information in its database was protected by the Fourth Amendment and not accessible outside of a warrant. Federal Judge Ancer L. Haggerty agreed:

In his 2014 ruling against the DEA, District Court Judge Ancer L. Haggerty called warrantless searches of such data an egregious invasion of privacy.

“It is difficult to conceive of information that is… more deserving of Fourth Amendment protection,” Haggerty said. “By obtaining the prescription records for individuals like John Does 2 and 4, a person would know that they have used testosterone in particular quantities and by extension, that they have gender identity disorder and are treating it through hormone therapy.

“Although there is not an absolute right to privacy in prescription information… it is more than reasonable for patients to believe that law enforcement agencies will not have unfettered access to their records,” he added.

The case is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. There the FDA and that man who thought everyone needed health insurance argue people have lost their rights to privacy when their information is added to the database so the Fourth Amendment protection does not apply – the adding process is not voluntary, by the way. Actually, they don’t think the Fourth Amendment (or any others pertaining to individual freedom) apply at all any more.

Congress, not wanting to be left out of the Bill of Rights desecration party, passed this March the The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act or “CARA” which will ease the sharing of database information pursuant to the DOJ’s and DEA’s plans. “CARA” is like “care” but with an “a”. The truth is these criminals do not care – not about you at any rate. They do care about expanding their police state powers. You should care. You should be alarmed.

Given this flurry of idiotic laws flying around concerning mandatory healthcare and database sharing and reporting, maybe one is better off forgoing any and all medical treatment. Jones surely could have lived a long (if painful) life with his old knees. Then again, they could just pass another law forcing people to have medical procedures. The Doctors And Medication Nationalization Act or “DAMN”? The doctors could just operate right in the prisons to make things logistically feasible.

The problem isn’t limited to medicine either. Heck, it’s everywhere the government touches – which is everywhere. The new FDA regulations developed illegally under the federal Family Tobacco Demonization Act may have similar implications for cigar smokers in the near future. Buy a box of Padrons and you’ll trigger the database police. A 10-year felony for cigar fraud. America, post America.

Google.

The solution is to get rid of these damned laws and their attendant regulations. Get rid of the agencies that enforce them. Get rid of the War on Drugs, the War on Freedom. Leave us alone. The government, if it must exist at all, should be a tiny little office in the D.C. swamp where the workers are terrified an angry mob of citizens might be at the door at any hour.

Until then maybe one should avoid seeking medications and medical care. You better not get sick, better not get hurt.