by Mark J. Fitzgibbons. While focusing their resources and political energy on the NSA’s mass collection of metadata, privacy advocates have neglected the most dangerous institutionalized violations of the Fourth Amendment: administrative subpoenas. Now a United States District Court judge in Texas has ruled for the Drug Enforcement Agency ... MORE
by Zack Whittaker. It's no longer a surprise that the government is reading your
emails. What you might not know is that it can readily read most of your
email without a warrant. Any email or social networking message you've opened that's more than six months old can also be accessed by every law enforcement official in government
-- ... MORE
from CBS New York. The widow of a baseball icon was heartbroken Friday night over a missing jersey that she believes was stolen. Last month, the Yankees gave Soot Zimmer a jersey in honor of her late husband, Don Zimmer, who served as bench coach for the team for several years. But the jersey never made it back to Florida with Soot ... MORE
Doing away with probable cause for the illusion of security. In their continuous efforts to create the impression that the government is doing something to keep Americans safe, politicians in Washington have misled and lied to the public. They have violated their oaths to uphold the Constitution. They have created a false sense of security. And ... MORE
The Patriot Act has a bad pedigree and an evil history. In the fearful days immediately following 9/11, the Department of Justice quickly sent draft legislation to Congress that, if enacted, would have permitted federal agents to violate their oaths to uphold the Constitution by writing their own search warrants. The draft subsequently was revealed ... MORE
Veterans abused by government. It is easy to stand up and cheer for your favorite government activity. It is quite another to acknowledge what it means in the real world. I almost never try to speak for other people. However, I think it is fairly safe to say that the average military recruit firmly believes that he joins the military so that you and ... MORE
Big hassle, lots of money and a tiny reward. Americans should buckle up and brace themselves for particularly heavy traffic this Memorial Day weekend. According to estimates from AAA, more than 37 million vacationers will drive to a destination for the three-day break this year, the most in nearly a decade. Unfortunately, crowded highways ... MORE
by David Rutter. When last we visited the unhappy realm of drunken drivers, we were asking a valid question: What if DUI arrests are going down in Illinois because there are fewer sloshed drivers? That was true everywhere but on Lake County's non-municipal roadways where sheriff's deputies made 348 DUI arrests in 2013, the most of any county ... MORE
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
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
by Joshua Krause. The police state just took a very dark turn. We all know that private corporations tend to side with the government on privacy issues, and they’re more than willing to hand over our information when the government asks for it. Google and Facebook are pretty well-known examples of that, and they’ve been doing it for so long ... MORE
More warrantless searches for Americans ahead. The government doesn't need a warrant to search cellphone tower location records, a federal appeals court in Atlanta has ruled. In a potentially wide-ranging ruling, the court said that because cellphone owners technically "volunteer" their location to providers when they ... MORE
by Lily Dane. Sobriety checkpoints (or "DUI checkpoints") are roadblocks that law enforcement officers set up on roads for the purpose of catching people driving under the influence of alcohol. Some of us also think they are used to generate revenue for police departments and the State, since the stops often result in citizens being slapped ... MORE