Tag Archives: 4th Amendment

360 Degree Surveillance: How Police Use Public-Private Partnerships to Spy on Americans, by John and Nisha Whitehead

Posted on January 19, 2023 | Leave a comment

The public-private partnerships muck up the legal waters, which is exactly what the police want. From John and Nisha Whitehead at rutherford.org:

“We live in a surveillance state founded on a partnership between government and the technology industry.”— Law Professor Avidan Y. Cover

In this age of ubiquitous surveillance, there are no private lives: everything is public.

Surveillance cameras mounted on utility poles, traffic lights, businesses, and homes. License plate readers. Ring doorbells. GPS devices. Dash cameras. Drones. Store security cameras. Geofencing and geotracking. FitBits. Alexa. Internet-connected devices.

There are roughly one billion surveillance cameras worldwide and that number continues to grow, thanks to their wholehearted adoption by governments (especially law enforcement and military agencies), businesses, and individual consumers.

With every new surveillance device we welcome into our lives, the government gains yet another toehold into our private worlds.

Indeed, empowered by advances in surveillance technology and emboldened by rapidly expanding public-private partnerships between law enforcement, the Intelligence Community, and the private sector, police have become particularly adept at sidestepping the Fourth Amendment.

As law professor Avidan Y. Cover explains:

A key feature of the surveillance state is the cooperative relationship between the private sector and the government. The private sector’s role is vital to the surveillance both practically and legally. The private sector, of course, provides the infrastructure and tools for the surveillance… The private sector is also critical to the surveillance state’s legality. Under the third-party doctrine, the Fourth Amendment is not implicated when the government acquires information that people provide to corporations, because they voluntarily provide their information to another entity and assume the risk that the entity will disclose the information to the government. Therefore, people do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their calling data, or potentially even their emails. As a result, the government does not normally need a warrant to obtain information transmitted electronically. But the Fourth Amendment is not only a source of protection for individual privacy; it also limits government excess and abuse through challenges by the people. The third-party doctrine removes this vital and populist check on government overreach.

Critical to this end run around the Fourth Amendment’s prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures by government agents is a pass play that allows police to avoid public transparency requirements (open bids, public meetings, installation protocols) by having private companies and individuals do the upfront heavy lifting, leaving police to harvest the intel on the back end.

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Punished Regardless, by Eric Peters

Posted on June 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

Just because you’re not intoxicated doesn’t mean you can’t be arrested at a DUI checkpoint. From Eric Peters at theburningplatform.com:

Did you know that when you’re stopped for no reason at a drunk driving checkpoint – well, stopped for no reason having anything to do with something you did to suggest you might be “drunk” – your refusal to participate in self-incrimination can result in your arrest, loss of your government permission slip to travel as well as the impounding of your car?

Your “cooperation” is not only appreciated – it is required.

This not-much-discussed aspect of Checkpoint USA is arguably even worse than the existence of Checkpoint USA – which came into being in the ’80s, when the government decided to re-interpret the limits of its own authority (a problem with government) by summarily decreeing it to be “reasonable” to randomly and arbitrarily stop people and treat them as presumptively guilty of having committed a crime.

The thing George Mason and others who insisted on the Bill of Rights as their condition for reluctantly supporting the dodgy Constitution (which was confected by an elitist minority, behind closed doors and without any mandate from “the people” mentioned in the Declaration of Independence) feared would come to pass had come to pass.

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Police State in Slo-Mo, by Jeff Thomas

Posted on July 3, 2018 | Leave a comment

We can look forward to sudden, surprise iterations of the US police state, increasing in frequency. From Jeff Thomas at internationalman.com:

For many years, I’ve forecasted that the US will evolve into a police state; that it will begin slowly; then as more and more freedoms are removed, the creation of the police state will accelerate.

We’re now seeing that acceleration, as more and more Americans are detained, questioned, and having their property confiscated than ever before.

As an example, in 2016, some 20,000 travellers in and out of the US were stopped, often at random. Typically, their baggage was searched, their documents photocopied, access codes to their electronic devices demanded and their files copied. In most cases, no explanation was given, but they were advised that if the search was refused, they would be detained indefinitely.

The following year, in 2017, the numbers of people detained rose by 50%, to 30,000.

It’s important to note that the travellers were not threatened with arrest, which suggests that the authorities were working on the basis that the Patriot Act of 2001 allows all of the above activities—without cause being given, without a warrant being obtained, without access to a phone call or legal representation being allowed, and that the individuals in question may be detained, indefinitely.

This, of course, is in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which states that people have the right “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”

However, when people travel, they are particularly vulnerable, so the travellers in question are extremely unlikely to refuse. They understand that, “indefinitely” means, “until a Supreme Court ruling is passed, overturning the Patriot Act as unconstitutional.” If it hasn’t happened yet and isn’t under consideration, it’s safe to say that the level of police state allowed under the Patriot Act is permanent.

Police States have been implemented countless times throughout history. They tend to be most prominent where collectivism has already been instituted.

To continue reading: Police State in Slo-Mo

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Crime, Government, Intelligence, Privacy, Surveillance

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Sexual Assault is a Crime … Except Sometimes, by Eric Peters

Posted on July 13, 2016 | Leave a comment

One of the more perverse notions of our time is that things which are blatantly immoral and illegal when done by private actors are fine and dandy when done by the government. Here’s an article about things we’d rather not think about, which means we should think about them. From Eric Peters on a guest post at theburningplatform:

Sexual assault is a crime… except when it’s done by an armed government worker (that is, a law enforcer).

How else to describe the horror visited on a South Dakota man named Dirk Sparks?

He was suspected of having ingested a “drug” arbitrarily decreed to be illegal by the same government that just as arbitrarily decrees other “drugs” to be legal – and when he declined to assist in his own incrimination by providing evidence that could and would be used against him in a court of law, was forcibly restrained, had his underwear pulled down, his penis exposed and handled – and catheterized – by armed government workers, who then extracted the urine sample they needed as evidence of his guilt.

He was later charged with two counts of “felony drug ingestion,” according to news reports.

What happened to Sparks is not an isolated atrocity performed by sadistic hillbilly cops. Under proliferating “no refusal” laws, if you decline to assist the government in establishing your guilt under DUI/DWI laws, the state has empowered itself to literally force the evidence (if any) out of your very body.

The federal government – through the National Highway Traffic Safety (run, when you hear that word) Administration – has been using “grants” (i.e., your tax dollars) to “encourage” (that’s their word, not mine) these “no refusal” checkpoints at which blood and other such boldly samples may be forcibly extracted from the victim.

A gauze of “legality” is provided by rubber-stamp search warrants issued on the spot (or via phone) by a compliant official. These are like the always-approved federal warrants delivered (in secret) by the FISA courts against alleged “terrorist” suspects. Basically, if the government wants to read your e-mails and obtain other such info, it’s going to get the go-ahead from the FISA kangaroo courts. Just the same, if a Hero at a DUI checkpoint is unhappy about your refusal to do roadside yoga or blow into a Breathalyzer machine, he can call Judge Rubber Stamp and then proceed to drop your drawers or jab a needle in your arm.

As in the movie, Deliverance – if they want your (blood/urine) they’ll take your (blood/urine).

It’s going to get worse, too.

Already has.

David Eckert was stopped for a minor traffic violation – not coming to a complete stop – and armed government workers subjected him to a forced anal cavity search, multiple enemas and colonoscopies – for which he was later billed.

No arbitrarily illegal “drugs” were found.

A Florida woman, Leila Tarantino, was similarly stopped by another armed government worker over a minor victimless affront to a statute – a “rolling” stop – and subjected to a sexual assault by the armed government worker, who shoved her hand inside Tarantino’s underwear, inserts her fingers into Tarantino’s vagina and forcibly removed the tampon (but no “drugs”) that was inside her.

To continue reading: Sexual Assault is a Crime … Except Sometimes

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A Needle in a Haystack, by Andrew P. Napolitano

Posted on December 10, 2015 | 1 comment

From Andrew P. Napolitano at antiwar.com:

If you were looking for a needle in a haystack, simple logic would tell you that the smaller the haystack the likelier you are to find the needle. Except for the government.

Since Edward Snowden revealed the federal government’s unlawful and unconstitutional use of federal statutes to justify spying on all in America all the time, including the members of Congress who unwittingly wrote and passed the statutes, I have been arguing that the Fourth Amendment prohibits all domestic spying, except that which has been authorized by a search warrant issued by a judge. The same amendment also requires that warrants be issued only based on a serious level of individualized suspicion backed up by evidence – called probable cause – and the warrants must specifically identify the place and person to be spied upon.

Because these requirements are in the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, Congress and the president and the courts are bound by them. There is no emergency or public safety or wartime exception to them. These requirements cannot be changed by legislation; only a constitutional amendment, ratified by the legislatures of 37 states, can do so.

All of this is what lawyers and judges call black letter law – meaning it is well-understood, has not been seriously challenged and is nearly universally accepted. Except by the government.

The government – which thinks it can right any wrong, tax any event, regulate any behavior and interfere with any right – also thinks it can keep us safe from the terrorists among us by cutting constitutional corners, which it has done many times since 9/11. Among the constitutional corners it has cut is unleashing its 60,000 domestic spies upon us with orders to disregard the constitutional requirements for spying on Americans and gather all the data about us that they can by listening to phone calls and reading emails, as well as gathering the banking information, credit card information, utility bills, postal mail and medical records of everyone in America, without regard to individualized suspicion.

The government’s behavior is premised upon the false belief that it can morally and constitutionally interfere with our natural right to privacy without due process and upon the absurd belief that surrendering personal liberty somehow keeps us safe.

To continue reading: A Needle in a Haystack

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The Spies Who Ruin Us, by Andrew P. Napolitano

Posted on December 3, 2015 | 1 comment

From Andrew P. Napolitano at antiwar.com:

In an effort to draw attention away from the intelligence failures that permitted the attacks of 9/11 and create the impression that it was doing something – anything – to avoid a repeat, the federal government tampered seriously with freedoms expressly guaranteed in the Constitution. Its principal target was the right to privacy, which is protected in the Fourth Amendment.

At President George W. Bush’s urging, Congress passed the Patriot Act in October 2001. This 315-page statute passed the House of Representatives with no debate, and there was very limited debate in the Senate. I have asked many members of Congress over the years whether they read this bill before they voted upon it, and I have yet to find a member who did. In the House, that would have been impossible; the bill was made available to representatives only 15 minutes prior to their vote.

This law permits FBI agents to write their own search warrants for business records, and it has been used to induce the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to issue warrants on a made-up basis to read emails and listen to telephone calls in real time. The members of Congress who voted for it were largely unaware of the liberties they were sacrificing.

The personal liberties that Congress surrendered have been a necessary bulwark against tyranny – the constitutional requirement of warrants as a precondition to searching homes and records, with warrants based on probable cause and specifically describing the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized.

When Edward Snowden revealed the nature and extent of the domestic spying that the government unleashed upon us post-9/11 and made us all aware of its use of the Patriot Act to do so, the authors of the Patriot Act expressed outrage and anger.

What was the government doing?

The government was secretly gathering data on all of us and using warrants that were not based on probable cause and that did not specifically describe the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized. When members of Congress realized that they, too, were being spied upon, the outrage grew. That outrage and anger metastasized into a new law enacted earlier this year, called the USA Freedom Act, which took effect this week. That law, its supporters have argued, will tame the National Security Agency into constitutional compliance and keep its 60,000 agents and contractors out of our private affairs. In fact, it is now worse.

To continue reading: The Spies Who Ruin Us

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The Wolf Is Guarding the Hen House: The Government’s War on Cyberterrorism, by John W. Whitehead

Posted on March 18, 2015 | Leave a comment

From John W. Whitehead, at The Rutherford Institute, http://www.rutherford.org:

“The game is rigged, the network is bugged, the government talks double-speak, the courts are complicit and there’s nothing you can do about it.”—David Kravets, reporting for Wired

Nothing you write, say, text, tweet or share via phone or computer is private anymore. As constitutional law professor Garrett Epps points out, “Big Brother is watching…. Big Brother may be watching you right now, and you may never know. Since 9/11, our national life has changed forever. Surveillance is the new normal.”

This is the reality of the internet-dependent, plugged-in life of most Americans today.

A process which started shortly after 9/11 with programs such as Total Information Awareness (the predecessor to the government’s present surveillance programs) has grown into a full-fledged campaign of warrantless surveillance, electronic tracking and data mining, thanks to federal agents who have been given carte blanche access to the vast majority of electronic communications in America. Their methods completely undermine constitution safeguards, and yet no federal agency, president, court or legislature has stepped up to halt this assault on our rights.

For the most part, surveillance, data mining, etc., is a technological, jargon-laden swamp through which the average American would prefer not to wander. Consequently, most Americans remain relatively oblivious to the government’s ever-expanding surveillance powers, appear unconcerned about the fact that the government is spying on them, and seem untroubled that there is no way of opting out of this system. This state of delirium lasts only until those same individuals find themselves arrested or detained for something they did, said or bought that runs afoul of the government’s lowering threshold for what constitutes criminal activity.

All the while, Congress, the courts, and the president (starting with George W. Bush and expanding exponentially under Barack Obama) continue to erect an electronic concentration camp the likes of which have never been seen before.

A good case in point is the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), formerly known as CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act). Sold to the public as necessary for protecting us against cyber attacks or internet threats such as hacking, this Orwellian exercise in tyranny-masquerading-as-security actually makes it easier for the government to spy on Americans, while officially turning Big Business into a government snitch.

Be warned: this cybersecurity bill is little more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing or, as longtime critic Senator Ron Wyden labeled it, “a surveillance bill by another name.”

Lacking any significant privacy protections, CISA, which sacrifices privacy without improving security, will do for surveillance what the Patriot Act did for the government’s police powers: it will expand, authorize and normalize the government’s intrusions into the most intimate aspects of our lives to such an extent that there will be no turning back. In other words, it will ensure that the Fourth Amendment, which protects us against unfounded, warrantless government surveillance, does not apply to the Internet or digital/electronic communications of any kind.

https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/the_wolf_is_guarding_the_hen_house_the_governments_war_on_cyberterrorism

To continue reading: The Wolf Is Guarding the Hen House

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