By J.D. Tucille. The Fourth Amendment protects us from random invasions of our homes by police, right? We know we're secure in our "persons, houses, papers, and effects" unless the cops demonstrate probable cause to a judge and get a warrant. Except... Except when they don't. The fact of the matter is that police have a lot of leeway ... MORE
Luggage theft. Drug use. Sleeping on the job. These are just a handful
of nearly 10,000 reports of misconduct involving employees at the Transportation Security Administration from 2010 to 2012, according to a new watchdog report. As
disturbing, wrote federal investigators, is that these allegations are
on the rise: increasing from 2,691 reports ... MORE
by John Villasenor. We don't have a mind reading machine. But what if we one day did? The
technique of functional MRI (fMRI), which measures changes in
localized brain activity over time, can now be used to infer information
regarding who we are thinking about, what we have seen, and the memories we are recalling.
As the technology ... MORE
by John W. Whitehead. During a routine traffic stop, Leila Tarantino was allegedly subjected to two roadside strip searches in plain view of passing traffic, while her two children—ages 1 and 4—waited inside her car. During the second strip search, presumably in an effort to ferret out drugs, a female officer “forcibly removed” a tampon from ... MORE
Purchase exemption from warrantless airport searches. The government is expanding the ways airline passengers can enroll in an expedited screening program that allows travelers to leave on their shoes, light outerwear and belts and keep laptop computers in cases at security checkpoints. Under the Transportation Security Administration's ... MORE
Freedom is under attack incrementally. Many Americans have probably read about oppressive governments in history books and thought, “Why didn’t the people stand up and stop this from happening?” In hindsight, it just seems so obvious that the people should have noticed and protested government overstepping its bounds. But often, ... MORE
The enormous apparatus isn’t making us safer. Not long ago while walking through the airport, the following
announcement caught my attention: “Will the person who forgot their
hearing aids please return to the Transportation Security Administration
security checkpoint to reclaim them.” It took me a moment to absorb
entirely the irony of the ... MORE
by Radley Balko. Earlier this month,
President Obama nominated North Carolina Rep. Mel Watt to head up the
Federal Housing Finance Authority. Here's a fun little nugget about Watt
that has little relevance to the job he's seeking, but has lots of
relevance to the current debates over leaks, press investigations,
wiretapping, and such: Back in ... MORE
Here they go again. The Obama administration has asked its allies in Congress to introduce legislation that would permit the feds to continue their march through the Fourth Amendment when it comes to obtaining private information about all of us. The Fourth Amendment, which guarantees the right to be left alone, was written largely in ... MORE
It is easiest to inconvenience the law-abiding. During a big chunk of the Bush years, there was a good deal of legitimate concern about the extent to which the government was monitoring us. And then there was some flat out crazy stuff. Naomi Wolf spoke for many when she periodically would come unglued about one imagined violation ... MORE
Cops deprived of one warrantless search capability. The use of a drug-sniffing dog by police outside of a home where they suspected drugs were being grown constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment, the Supreme Court said in a decision handed down Tuesday. The case, Florida v. Jardines, dealt with whether ... MORE
So much for limits on search and seizure. Targeted killings have made drones controversial, but a new class of tiny aircraft in the United States — cheap, able and ubiquitous — could engage in targeted snooping that existing laws are inadequate to address, witnesses and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said in a hearing on ... MORE
by Marcella Robinson. Texting and driving is dangerous and in many cases, deadly. The Virginia General Assembly recently passed a bill that would make texting and driving a primary offense, but a Charlottesville civil rights group wants you to know the law would be devastating to your Fourth-Amendment rights. A press release issued the Rutherford ... MORE
TSA demands marine take off his legs for search. Transportation Security Administration inspectors forced a wounded
Marine who lost both of his legs in an IED blast and who was in a
wheelchair to remove his prosthetic legs at one point, and at another
point to stand painfully on his legs while his wheelchair was examined,
according to a ... MORE