Free Republic

Police in the Democrat haven of Maryland shot and killed a man in his home on Monday while serving a “protective order” under a new law which allows them to seize people’s guns without due process. Since the new gun confiscation law went into effect on October 1st, police have carried out 114 such confiscation orders, which comes out to over 3 such seizures every day.

A freelance automotive journalist worries a testing site operated by the Illinois Tollway Authority could be for more than just testing automated tollway technology. Paul Brian said he’s noticed a site with various sensors on northbound I-294 for years with a sign that reads “for testing purposes only.” Illinois Tollway Authority officials said the site is used for testing various sensors, but only for tollway purposes. The site, established in 2015, had an initial price tag of $2.7 million. “The Illinois Tollway has used the test site to study a range of systems – some of which were adopted and...

The US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of digital privacy. In a 5-4 decision on Friday the justices decided that police need warrants to gather phone location data as evidence for trials. The Supreme Court reversed and remanded the Sixth Circuit court's decision. Carpenter v. United States is the first case about phone location data that the Supreme Court has ruled on. That makes it a landmark decision regarding how law enforcement agencies can use technology as they build cases. The court heard arguments in the case on Nov. 29. The dispute dates back to a 2011 robbery in...

Full title................'This is harassment and racial profiling!' California woman forces Border Patrol agents off a Greyhound bus using the Fourth Amendment after they demanded to see everyone's documents......................The incident took place at a border post which used to be used to check for fruit being brought into California because of an invasive species of fly. But on this occasion when the bus stopped, Smalls said the driver announced: 'We are being boarded by Border Patrol. Please be prepared to show your documentation upon request.' Smalls said she stood up and began shouting: 'This is a violation of your Fourth amendment...

A Portland family contacted Amazon to investigate after they say a private conversation in their home was recorded by Amazon's Alexa -- the voice-controlled smart speaker -- and that the recorded audio was sent to the phone of a random person in Seattle, who was in the family’s contact list. "My husband and I would joke and say I'd bet these devices are listening to what we're saying," said Danielle, who did not want us to use her last name. Every room in her family home was wired with the Amazon devices to control her home's heat, lights and security...

The National Security Agency paid millions of dollars to cover the costs of major internet companies involved in the Prism surveillance program after a court ruled that some of the agency's activities were unconstitutional, according to top-secret material passed to the Guardian. The technology companies, which the NSA says includes Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook, incurred the costs to meet new certification demands in the wake of the ruling from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (Fisa) court. The October 2011 judgment, which was declassified on Wednesday by the Obama administration, found that the NSA's inability to separate purely domestic communications from...

The porn actress Stormy Daniels is expected to attend a court hearing in New York on Monday where a U.S. judge is hearing more arguments about President Donald Trump’s extraordinary request that he be allowed to review records seized from his personal lawyer’s office as part of a criminal investigation before they are examined by prosecutors. The raid carried out last Monday at Michael Cohen’s apartment, hotel room, office and safety deposit box sought bank records, records on Cohen’s dealing in the taxi industry, Cohen’s communications with the Trump campaign and information on payments made in 2016 to former Playboy...

There’s a new, proposed backdoor to our data, which would bypass our Fourth Amendment protections to communications privacy. It is built into a dangerous bill called the CLOUD Act, which would allow police at home and abroad to seize cross-border data without following the privacy rules where the data is stored. This backdoor is an insidious method for accessing our emails, our chat logs, our online videos and photos, and our private moments shared online between one another. This backdoor would deny us meaningful judicial review and the privacy protections embedded in our Constitution. This new backdoor for cross-border data...

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.