Fourth Amendment

Police Must Respect Journalists’ Rights To Freely Report On DNC Protests

August 19, 2024 Seth Stern and Jimena Pinzon, Chicago Sun-Times. Educate! Chicago, DNC, First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Illinois, Journalism, Journalists, Police, Press Freedom

Hundreds of journalists are expected to converge on Chicago to cover the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19-22 – and they must be allowed to do their jobs unimpeded. The city’s plan to “streamline” mass arrests during the convention, by processing arrestees at a makeshift court at the Area 3 police station at Belmont and Western, does nothing to alleviate the threat mass arrests pose to journalists. The plan, reported by the Sun-Times last week, is supposedly for the arrestees’ convenience: It’ll be easier for them to get home on public transportation that way. But “catch and release” arrests are never convenient for journalists, or their readers.

Win! Landmark Seventh Circuit Decision Says Fourth Amendment Applies To Smart Meter Data

August 24, 2018 By Jamie Williams, Eff.org Educate! Courts, Fourth Amendment

The Seventh Circuit just handed down a landmark opinion, ruling 3-0 that the Fourth Amendment protects energy-consumption data collected by smart meters. Smart meters collect energy usage data at high frequencies—typically every 5, 15, or 30 minutes—and therefore know exactly how much electricity is being used, and when, in any given household. The court recognized that data from these devices reveals intimate details about what’s going on inside the home that would otherwise be unavailable to the government without a physical search. The court held that residents have a reasonable expectation of privacy in this data and that the government’s access of it constitutes a “search.” This case, Naperville Smart Meter Awareness v. City of Naperville, is the first case addressing whether the Fourth Amendment protects smart meter data.

Supreme Court Hands Down ‘Groundbreaking Victory’ For Privacy

June 25, 2018 By Jessica Corbett, Theantimedia.com Educate! Cell Phones, Fourth Amendment, Privacy, Supreme Court

(CD) — In a decision that digital rights advocates called “a groundbreaking victory for Americans’ privacy rights,” the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday that police generally must obtain a warrant before collecting cellphone records that can be used to track a person’s movements. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which represented the petitioner, predicted the “historic” win “will have a ripple effect for privacy,” particularly as it applies to data held by third parties. As the group explained in a series of tweets, “It will help protect all sorts of digital information stored online, from emails to data from smart home appliances.”

NSA’s Spying Power Could Soon Be Extended

January 7, 2018 By Marlee Kokotovic, Nationofchange.org Resist! Fourth Amendment, NSA, spying, Surveillance

People all over the nation are joining together to pressure Congress to uphold the Fourth Amendment. The National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance powers are soon up for renewal in Congress, which could continue to affect millions of Americans’ privacy. Lawmakers are hoping to pass the bill, which would allow the NSA to continue violating millions of American’s privacy, quickly to avoid resistance. Many believe the NSA’s powers, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Security Act, to be unconstitutional because it allows the NSA to collect and read communications between millions of Americans without a warrant. House Republicans are attempting to expand these powers even more. These new powers would include allowing the FBI to target citizens’ emails in NSA databases without a warrant.

Liberty Act: “Fake Fix” To Controversial NSA Spying Program

November 3, 2017 Whitney Webb, blackagendareport.com Educate! Fourth Amendment, NSA, Surveillance

By Whitney Webb for Mint Press News - Ever since Edward Snowden helped reveal the true extent of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) massive spying program, U.S. politicians have attempted to “fix” the program’s gross violations of the Fourth Amendment with legislation. While some legislative efforts were “fake fixes,” others were well-meaning but have fallen short, as legislators still lack key information regarding how the government interprets and uses Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and Section 215 of the Patriot Act to legally justify its dragnet collection of citizen phone records and other information. Indeed, over the past four years, Congress has been stonewalled by the NSA in its attempts to learn more about the program. The NSA has repeatedly refused even to estimate how many Americans are spied on by the agency’s most invasive programs and has even refused to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress or other elected officials in the United States. Despite the NSA’s failure to cooperate, Congress is again attempting to rein in the agency’s internet surveillance program, as its key legislative underpinning is set to expire by year’s end. The newly introduced bill, titled the USA Liberty Act, seeks to address the worst of the program’s abuses while also reauthorizing some aspects of the program to continue for another six years.

The Drug Exception To The Bill Of Rights Continues

June 22, 2016 Mark Joseph Stern, www.slate.com Educate! Fourth Amendment, Freedom, Police, Supreme Court

By Mark Joseph Stern for The Slate - The Supreme Court issued an extraordinarily disappointing 5–3 decision on Monday in Utah v. Strieff, a Fourth Amendment case about police searches. Yet the terrible ruling came with a bright spot: In a powerful and groundbreaking dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor lambasted the majority for its heartless and illogical rejection of Fourth Amendment freedoms, invoking the Justice Department’s Ferguson report, echoing Black Lives Matter, and even citing Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Bush-Era DOJ Memos Gave President Power Violate 4th Amendment

September 7, 2014 Ellen Nakashima, www.washingtonpost.com Educate! Fourth Amendment, NSA, Privacy, Surveillance

The Justice Department released two decade-old memos Friday night, offering the fullest public airing to date of the Bush administration’s legal justification for the warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ phone calls and e-mails — a program that began in secret after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The broad outlines of the argument — that the president has inherent constitutional power to monitor Americans’ communications without a warrant in a time of war — were known, but the sweep of the reasoning becomes even clearer in the memos written by then-Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith, who was head of President George W. Bush’s Office of Legal Counsel. “We conclude only that when the nation has been thrust into an armed conflict by a foreign attack on the United States and the president determines in his role as commander in chief . . . that it is essential for defense against a further foreign attack to use the [wiretapping] capabilities of the [National Security Agency] within the United States, he has inherent constitutional authority” to order warrantless wiretapping — “an authority that Congress cannot curtail,” Goldsmith wrote in a redacted 108-page memo dated May 6, 2004.

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