Tag Archives: fourth amendment

Room Eight, a blog about NYC politics co-founded by popular Politico.com columnist Ben Smith, has been quietly fighting a subpoena from Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson’s office. The subpoena demanded to know the identity of the Room Eight anonymous blogger “Republican Dissident” who had criticized Johnson’s office. The subpoena carried a warning in capital letters that disclosing its very existence …

Yesterday Dubya signed away another piece of democracy when he gleefully scratched his name in blood onto the FISA bill. George W. Bush Thursday signed a law expanding legal authority for wiretaps by spy agencies which he hailed as vital for America’s security, after a fierce Congress battle. “This law will play a critical role in helping to prevent another …

Thanks to today’s Senate vote to approve the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, warrantless wiretapping, arguably the most intrusive violation of Americans’ right to privacy, will become legal. Oh, and everybody who’s already done it is now immunized against lawsuits. A list of how each Senator voted is here. The Democratic-led Congress this afternoon voted to put an end to the …

According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, arrests for the possession of small amounts of marijuana have increased tenfold in NYC over the last decade. Via Gothamist: That isn’t all, the reports are also showing that the NYPD are weeding out Blacks and Latinos, with more than half those arrested being black, and 31% being Hispanic. A NYPD spokesperson …

The Minority Report is coming true. The FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people’s physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI wants to use eye scans, combined with other data, to help identify suspects. But it’s an issue that raises major privacy concerns — …

In his seventh annual State Of The City address today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg revealed his plan to ask Albany for the power to gather DNA from anybody arrested in New York City, innocent or guilty, for any crime, including simple misdemeanors such as participating in civil disobedience. Why this? Why NOW? We already live in the safest (by FAR) large …

From the New Yorker, via Raw Story: National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a “walk in the park,” according to an interview published in the New Yorker‘s print edition today. Debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “will be a walk in the …

It appears that U.S. courts are about to reverse a 2006 ruling that customs officials cannot search the laptop computers of travelers without probably cause. The government contends that it is perfectly free to inspect every laptop that enters the country, whether or not there is anything suspicious about the computer or its owner. Rummaging through a computer’s hard drive, …

Yesterday Dubya signed a law expanding the ability of the government to eavesdrop on our international phone conversations and emails without warrants. The law was enacted in order to protect the major telecommunication companies that are now facing numerous lawsuits for having secretly cooperated in previous warrantless wiretappings. These companies have been pressuring the Bush administration to enact legislation freeing …