What part of “illegal search and seizure” don’t they get?
Federal court: 4th Amendment standard does not always apply to mobile phone location data
Law enforcement can still be required to obtain a search warrant for access to citizens’ mobile phone location data, but police need not uphold the traditional Fourth Amendment standard of “probable cause” in the process of such an investigation, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
In this case, the Obama administration has argued that warrantless tracking is permissible because Americans enjoy no “reasonable expectation of privacy” in their–or at least their cell phones’–whereabouts. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers have said that “a customer’s Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records” that show where a mobile device placed and received calls.</em>
This is really staggering to me. Humor me here, but in theory, the government is a creation of the people. We the people are able to go anywhere, do anything so long as we don’t break any laws while doing so. (I told you to humor me…). What possible line of reasoning can be offered to counter the Fourth Amendment (“illegal search and seizure”) or the Fifth (“nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself”), that expressly prohibits the state from spying on its citizens?
Is there anyone among us who truly believes that its ok for the government to know where we are at any given time? Sadly, there of course are, but we know where they are at all times- clustered around the dim glow of cable news. But the rest of us find this inconceivable, that such a thing even needs to be debated in a “free” society.
“No reasonable expectation of privacy”? Fuck you. Fuck you very much. We have EVERY expectation of privacy, because we are free men, not subjects. We based our entire nation upon that simple idea.
So again, fuck you very much.
