Free Republic

Courts are faulting the search, but allowing the information, as case law lags behind technology Emilio Jean won his appeal, but he might as well have lost. Arizona law-enforcement officers violated Mr. JeanÂ’s privacy rights when they rigged a GPS device to a tractor-trailer he was co-piloting and tracked it for three days without a warrant, the stateÂ’s highest court ruled in January. But the Arizona court declined to throw out the illegally obtained evidence, a move that likely would have set Mr. Jean free. Instead, he is serving the rest of his 10-year prison sentence for attempting to haul...

Clinton paid Russians for known lies that top 0bama Administration officials used to lie to the FISA Court so that they could violate Americans' 4th Amendment Rights. Let's name names in this conspiracy. Who exactly, by name and title, knew that the dossier was fake, and that it was presented to the FISA Court as if it was real? Those people need to be indicted. Let's name them, and have them start quaking in their boots.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained “many tens of thousands” of Trump transition emails, including sensitive emails of Jared Kushner, transition team sources tell Axios. Trump officials discovered Mueller had the emails when his prosecutors used them as the basis for questions to witnesses, the sources said. The emails include 12 accounts, one of which contains about 7,000 emails, the sources said. The accounts include the team's political leadership and the foreign-policy team, the sources said. Why it matters: The transition emails are said to include sensitive exchanges on matters that include potential appointments, gossip about the views of particular...

A lawyer for the Trump presidential transition team is accusing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office of inappropriately obtaining transition documents as part of its Russia probe, including confidential attorney-client communications and privileged communications. In a letter obtained by Fox News and sent to House and Senate committees on Saturday, the transition team’s attorney alleges “unlawful conduct” by the career staff at the General Services Administration in handing over transition documents to the special counsel’s office. Officials familiar with the case argue Mueller could have a problem relating to the 4th Amendment – which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

For many of us, the information we carry around on a smart phone is the Rosetta Stone to decipher our lives. Our appointments, personal and business contacts, notes, favorite tunes, photographs, and many more windows into the inner recesses of our lives and livelihoods can be found there. Besides the incredibly personal and valuable information inside our smart phones, our cell phone service providers have plenty of our valuable information, such as with whom we have spoken and even a record of our locations. And under present law, police and prosecutors don’t need a warrant issued after probable cause to...

You can expect many links to sources in this report, as I have found it difficult to get straight answers on this subject. For the most part, it has gone unreported by MSM. The only reason I found reference to it at all, is the fact I am following the Russia investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. First of all, I want to start out by listing links to information concerning a finding by a FISA Court judge on the illegal spying by the NSA,FBI, and the Obama Justice Department on the Trump Team. 1.http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article152947909.html QUOTE The document, signed by...

There is no underlying crime that is being investigated!! "4th Amendment – 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." Government is not permitted to dig into citizen’s past to find something that they can call a crime, nor are they permitted to expose personal information with the sole purpose of damaging a person’s...

By now, most people probably have seen the disturbing video of a Salt Lake City Cop manhandling and arresting a University of Utah nurse for doing her job, following protocol, and protecting an unconscious patient in her care. The chaotic scene can be viewed here. In brief, Detective Jeff Payne demanded access to an unconscious accident victim who was suspected of no wrongdoing in order to draw the man’s blood for the police investigation. Nurse Alex Wubbels cited hospital policy and an apparent agreement with the police department that allows a blood draw only with patient consent, or a warrant,...

A case just decided by the Tenth Circuit shows how utterly absurd the “war on drugs” has become, how petty and power-mad the police can be, and how blindly deferential some of our federal judges are. The case, Harte v. Johnson County Board of Commissioners, arose out of an idiotic, military-style raid by Kansas police on the home of Robert and Adlynn Harte in 2012. They were not in any way involved with drugs (particularly marijuana), but a few officers came to the conclusion that they might be. Here’s how. One August day in 2011, Mr. Harte and his two...

A former U.S. intelligence contractor tells Circa he walked away with more than 600 million classified documents on 47 hard drives from the National Security Agency and the CIA, a haul potentially larger than Edward Snowden's now infamous breach. And now he is suing former FBI Director James Comey and other government figures, alleging the bureau has covered up evidence he provided them showing widespread spying on Americans that violated civil liberties. The suit, filed late Monday night by Dennis Montgomery, was assigned to the same federal judge who has already ruled that some of the NSA's collection of data...

A new NYPD directive forbids cops from entering a residence in response to a noise complaint — unless they’re given permission. The directive, a copy of which has been obtained by The Post, means loud partiers can simply tell the cops who come to their door to just go away. The bizarre constraint is the result of costly, successful lawsuits against the city by homeowners who complained that cops barged onto their properties without a warrant, multiple sources told The Post.

Many of you have asked for the status of my computer intrusion lawsuit against the federal government. On March 19, 2017, a federal judge denied the government’s motion to dismiss my computer intrusion lawsuit, and transferred the case from Washington D.C. to the Eastern District of Virginia. Below are excerpts from the judge’s opinion, which provides a good summary.

Just days before leaving office Loretta Lynch secretly signed an order to allow any branch of government, including local law enforcement, access to the NSA’s data mine on the American people. She created a mechanism by which the Fourth Amendment can be circumvented by law enforcement agencies of any type and description, foreign and domestic, in the area of digital information.

Police officers may only conduct a search following a traffic stop if they believe there is probable cause a crime was committed, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday in a child pornography case involving a bicyclist pulled over for rolling through a stop sign. Torrance police stopped bicyclist Paul Macabeo in 2012 after following him a short distance with their patrol car's headlights off. They acknowledged he was not riding erratically and did not try to flee. Macabeo was arrested after the officers searched his phone and said they found photos of underage girls. The state's highest court said that...

FBI Director James Comey is again warning about the bureau’s inability to access digital devices because of encryption. In a speech Tuesday, Comey said default encryption built into smartphones is “making more and more of the room that we are charged to investigate dark.” He said the FBI is working to collect information on the issue so that “next year we can have an adult conversation in this country.” …

If there is anything on which Americans across the political spectrum agree, it is the inviolability of the Constitution. It is our national scripture, invoked by all and rejected by none. Conservatives attending the first tea party rallies in 2009 often waved copies of the document. The most memorable moment of the recent Democratic National Convention was when the father of a Muslim U.S. Army captain killed in Iraq demanded of Donald Trump, "Have you even read the United States Constitution?" But one portion of our national charter has eroded to the point of invisibility: the Fourth Amendment. It says,...

The Senate on Wednesday rejected a Republican-led effort to allow the FBI to access a person’s Internet browsing history, email account data and other electronic communications without a court order in terrorism and spy cases. The measure from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) would have also extended the government’s authority to conduct surveillance over potential “lone wolf” attackers. [ ] A majority of the Senate backed the proposal in a 58 to 38 vote, but it needed 60 votes to advance. [ ] The measure inspired a fierce backlash...

They’re coming for your home. Right now. I suggest you save it. I can guide you, but you must do exactly as I say. Except, this isn’t The Matrix. You’re no actor, like Keanu Reeves, playing a distraught programmer-hacker named “Neo.” Nor am I an actor, like Laurence Fishburne, playing your guide “Morpheus.” This is real life, baby. Your home or apartment—and the neighborhood in which you live—is under siege. “Agents”—sans black glasses and black business suits—who work for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have written a new regulation called “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) that...

President Barack Obama on Friday called on Sen. Rand Paul to drop his “quirky” objections to pending international tax treaties so they can move forward in Congress. Obama said the treaties will help U.S. authorities investigate and crack down on offshore tax evasion. Paul has argued that they would infringe on Americans’ constitutional right to privacy because their tax data and personal financial information would be shared with other countries. Treaties cannot go into force unless ratified by the Senate, and the objection of any one senator halts action on legislative business pending in that house of Congress, as Paul...

A federal judge in Brooklyn has ruled that the government can't force Apple to help break an iPhone's passcode security. No, it's not the San Bernardino shooting case, a similar situation where the FBI is seeking to compel Apple to provide custom software to help it access data on a criminal's iPhone...