“We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no secrets from government,” Supreme Court Justice William Douglass lamented over sixty years ago. Unfortunately, he was right, as former Sun Microsystems chief said in 1999: “You’ve got zero privacy . . . so get over it.” Well, nearly fifteen years later, I can’t get over it. There are many reasons we’re losing individual privacy in the United States. Many of the reasons have rational explanations. For example, the Supreme Court’s legal standard for
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You might not have heard about CISPA yet, but if the Fourth Amendment is important to you, then the time to fight back against the big brother intrusion is now. Also known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, CISPA is a law supposedly written to protect America from cyber threats. It sounds like a good thing on its face, but a closer look into the text of the legislation reveals an attack on privacy protections. The cyber security bill gives new powers that would potentially derail Fourth Amendment protections in America. CISPA allows
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GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN – U.S. District Judge William Griesbach ruled yesterday that police are free, in some circumstance, to install hidden surveillance cameras on private property without obtaining a warrant. At issue was whether Drug Enforcement Administration agents had a reasonable right to install “covert digital surveillance cameras” on private property without a warrant, in this case in hopes of gaining evidence that 30 to 40 marijuana plants were being grown. As technology continues to evolve, the legal system is continually rethinking to what extent Americans’ privacy rights are protected by law. Drones, GPS tracking,
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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.” The above words are ones that all Americans should know by heart. They are the body and the text of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, from the Bill of Rights. These are the fundamental protections that we were all given
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