Showing posts with label Fourth Amendment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fourth Amendment. Show all posts

Tim Cushing: Getting Behind The Wheel Is Pretty Much Kissing Your 4th Amendment Protections Goodbye

Cars are for criminals.       There's been more good news than bad concerning the Fourth Amendment recently. In addition to the Supreme Court's ruling that searches of cellphones incident to arrest now require a warrant, various circuit court decisions on cell site location info and the surreptitious use of GPS tracking devices may see the nation's    ... MORE

Ken Armstrong: How The Supreme Court Has Made It Legal For Cops To Pull You Over For Pretty Much Anything

Ignorance of the law by cops not a problem for High Court. Legal principles can be complicated, but in most courts, until eight months ago, there was a pretty simple one: Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Then came Heien v. North Carolina, decided by the US Supreme Court in December. Now the principle is: Ignorance of the law is no   ... MORE

Arizona Court Upholds Warrantless Search At Wrong House

State lawyers in robes castrate the Fourth Amendment.     An Arizona court has upheld a woman's marijuana convictions based on a warrantless search conducted when sheriff's deputies were sent to a home in response to a 911 "hang-up" call that was treated as an emergency. The Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected Starr Bennett's argument   ... MORE

The Border Patrol's Unconstitutional Drug Dragnet

by Jacob Sullum.  More evidence the government is not us. If you want to know how Jessica Cooke ended up on her back, screaming in pain as the barbs from a stun gun delivered incapacitating electricity into her body, there are several possible answers. You could say this indignity was caused by her own stubbornness, her refusal to comply with the       ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: Rand And Ted On The Fourth

When do you need a warrant?     A decision last week about NSA spying by a panel of judges on the United States Court of Appeals in New York City sent shock waves through the government. The court ruled that a section of the Patriot Act that is due to expire at the end of this month and on which the government has relied as a basis for its bulk  ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: 2 Cases That Illustrate Warrantless Snooping Goes Far Beyond The NSA's Phone-Record Dragnet

If only the Fourth Amendment had teeth.     Last week a federal appeals court said police do not need a warrant to look at cellphone records that reveal everywhere you've been. Two days later, another appeals court said the National Security Agency (NSA) is breaking the law by indiscriminately collecting telephone records that show    ... MORE

The Drug War Now Features Roadside Sexual Assaults

by Jacob Sullum.      Last month the Texas House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill that requires police officers to obtain a warrant before probing the anuses and vaginas of motorists during traffic stops. The fact that the bill was deemed necessary speaks volumes about the way the war on drugs has eroded our Fourth Amendment    ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: Restore The Fourth

Stop the pernicious assault on privacy.       If you plan to visit a college campus this month, don't be surprised if you see signs and placards encouraging you to "Restore the Fourth." Restore the Fourth is not about an athletic event or a holiday; it is about human freedom. The reference to "the Fourth" is to the Fourth Amendment, and it is badly in  ... MORE

Lawmakers Move To End Warrantless Domestic Surveillance

by Grant Gross.    If only we had a Fourth Amendment, this wouldn't be necessary. A new bill in Congress would require law enforcement agencies to get court-ordered warrants before targeting U.S. residents in searches of electronic communications collected by the National Security Agency. The End Warrantless Surveillance of Americans Act, introduced   ... MORE

Why The Bill Of Rights Would Never Pass Today

by Charles C W Cooke.    Having watched closely the manner in which questions of liberty and power are batted around in the first part of the 21st century — most recently during the disgraceful contretemps that Indiana’s rather tame Religious Freedom Restoration Act provoked across the land — I have come to wonder of late whether the Bill of    ... MORE

Supremes Rule 6-3 That Police Cannot Prolong Traffic Stops In Order To Instigate A Search By A Drug-Sniffing Dog

Fourth Amendment holds on by narrow margin.  Rejecting the idea that some violations of the Constitution are insignificant, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that police may not extend the time needed to conduct an ordinary traffic stop in order to subject the vehicle and its occupants to an examination by a drug-detecting dog unless   ... MORE

Ian Hanchett: Jeb Bush Is 'Nervous' About NSA Criticism

Hostility to the Fourth Amendment.  Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush stated that he is “nervous” about criticism of the NSA and that he wished the president would do a better job defending government surveillance systems on Monday’s “Hugh Hewitt Show.” Bush said that lone wolf terrorism “is a serious threat in a world where we’re so   ... MORE

California Bill Requires Warrant For Stingray Searches

by Cyrus Farivar.   A toothless Fourth Amendment makes it necessary. A California state bill that would require a warrant to access all kinds of digital data passed its first hurdle after being approved by the Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday. Among other sweeping new requirements to enhance digital privacy, the bill notably imposes  ... MORE

Private Police: Mercenaries For The American Police State

by John W. Whitehead.      It’s one thing to know and exercise your rights when a police officer pulls you over, but what rights do you have when a private cop—entrusted with all of the powers of a government cop but not held to the same legal standards—pulls you over and subjects you to a stop-and-frisk or, worse, causes you to “disappear” into a   ... MORE

What If The Government Fears Freedom?

by Andrew Napolitano.         What if the current massive spying on Americans began with an innocent secret executive order signed by President Reagan in 1986?   What if Reagan contemplated that he was only authorizing American spies to spy on foreign spies unlawfully present in the U.S.?   What if Reagan knew and respected the history of the   ... MORE

Forced Blood Draws, DNA Collection and Biometric Scans

by John W. Whitehead.    What country is this? 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, spy on, probe, pat down, taser, and arrest any individual at any time and for the slightest provocation. Forced cavity    ... MORE

DUI Checkpoints Could Be A Thing Of The Past In N.D.

by Nicole Johnson.    If only the Fourth Amendment protected us from warrantless searches. DUI checkpoints in North Dakota could soon be a thing of the past. Sobriety checkpoints are used in North Dakota by police to deter drunk driving. But, lawmakers in Bismarck are talking about getting rid of them, saying there needs to be a reason to     ... MORE