Posted on 08/27/2009 4:47:08 PM PDT by traumer
ap Gov't tightens oversight of laptop border searches Obama administration tightens oversight of controversial laptop searches at the border
* By Eileen Sullivan, Associated Press Writer * On Thursday August 27, 2009, 7:34 pm EDT
o Buzz up! 0 o Print
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration on Thursday put new restrictions on searches of laptops at U.S. borders to address concerns that federal agents have been rummaging through travelers' personal information.
The long-criticized practice of searching travelers' electronic devices will continue, but a supervisor now would need to approve holding a device for more than five days. Any copies of information taken from travelers' machines would be destroyed within days if there were no legal reason to hold the information.
Given all the personal details that people store on digital devices, border searches of laptops and other gadgets can give law enforcement officials far more revealing pictures of travelers than suitcase inspections might yield. That has set off alarms among civil liberties groups and travelers' advocates who say the government has crossed a line by examing electronic contact lists and confidential e-mail messages, trade secrets and proprietary business files, financial and medical records and other deeply private information.
In some cases, travelers suspected that border agents were copying their files after taking their laptops and cell phones away for time periods ranging from a few minutes to a few weeks or longer.
Last July, amid mounting outside pressure, the Homeland Security Department issued a formal policy stating that federal agents can search documents and electronic devices at the border without a warrant or even suspicion. The procedures also allowed border agents to retain documents and devices for "a reasonable period of time" to perform a thorough search "on-site or at an off-site location."
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
They have found a stunning amount of child porn being brought into the country with these searches.
They search those, too.
Hussein doesn’t care about my privacy under Obamacare.
If they would just put us all under house arrest, with a court order required to leave our homes, I’ll bet there’d be no crime at all.
Encryption is your friend.
There ain’t a lot of stuff that the government is supposed to do, but control of ANYTHING that crosses our border is one of them...and clearly the data on a laptop that crosses the border fits this category (sorry FReepers).
If you don’t want to be searched, then don’t bring anything that you’re not ok with sharing.
That simple.
This is ridiculous. It’s likely illegal, as well. Guidelines or no, the unwarranted search of data is no different from an unwarranted search of your person, or your home.
The government continues to stretch its authority well beyond the limits placed on it by the US Constitution.
It’s time to take back the country.
They can’t just walk up to you on the street. These searches occur BEFORE PEOPLE ENTER OUR COUNTRY. The only thing they have found, so far, is a boatload of child porn, a lot of it from Canada and Thailand. One of the federal government’s legitimate duties is to monitor what is coming across the border.
It is time to take the country back for all sorts of reasons these days..starting with 0bama and his new SIEU Army..on down to our records for health and IRS and anything else being at the beck and call of this mob in DC. How about the census that wants data about our personal property that has nothing to do with how many people live at given residence. Or how about the IRS forms that are reported to want to know about firearms that one may own..what does that have to do with income?
Hmmm! Supporting facts & sources, please...
Section 8 - Powers of Congress
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
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Amendment 4 - Search and Seizure. Ratified 12/15/1791.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/
They are also reported in the local newspapers. I seem to remember several from New York state.
Just curious, but why do you think I would make up something like that?
“Sorry must have missed that in my copy...”
That’s ok, it’s the part about providing for the common defense...which means SECURING THE BORDER.
So, it’s probably best to leave your hot MP3s at home.
Most recently, a 2004 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Manuel Flores-Montano
...The Supreme Court reversed the 9th Circuit Court dismissal, holding that Customs did not require reasonable suspicion, or any level of suspicion for that matter. In a unanimous opinion, the Court stated that the United States has a "longstanding right . . . to protect itself by stopping and examining persons and property crossing into this country." Dismissing arguments that the Fourth Amendment requires a heightened level of suspicion to support an intrusive search of property at the border, the Court held that the (search) at the border did not amount to a sufficient deprivation of a property interest as to create a Fourth Amendment concern.
That clause exists to allow the formation of a National Army. Then to allow it to "stand", in a very limited fashion, in times of peace.
However, as you like that clause so much, in defending Hamilton wrote the following at the near the conclusion of his argument for it.
"It may safely be received as an axiom in our political system, that the State governments will, in all possible contingencies, afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority. "
Didn't think that at all...
Just wanted some sources that I could send to a number of friends who have an intense interest in anything that is "claimed" by the Neapolitan (and I mean "Neapolitan") DHS and the perpetual terrorist-supporting crap they disseminate.
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