Free Republic

The Alaska Supreme Court ruled on Friday that law enforcement officers in Alaska are not permitted to conduct aerial surveillance of a person’s yard using a zoom lens without first obtaining a warrant. In its ruling, the court said that it disagrees with the state’s claim that such surveillance was constitutional “because small airplane travel is so common in Alaska, and because any passenger might peer into your yard and snap a picture of you, law enforcement officials may do the same.” “The Alaska Constitution protects the right to be free of unreasonable searches,” the court stated in a 34-page...

Ok maybe it is just me and I am imagining things. Anyone who has been running searches on the internet for the last 20 years or so has probably noticed how difficult it has gotten to get concise and accurate results. Even boolean operators are no help. Lately I have noticed another thing. Every time I search for a news article almost all the returns I get are for links to a mainstream media article. Little or nothing from alternative sources. The other thing is that if you search for something even slightly untoward about almost any progressive or out...

The Supreme Court will issue at least one opinion this week while it weighs a packed docket of cases, including a request by the IRS to allow its agents to secretly obtain financial records without the need to notify account holders. Wednesday will mark the day when the nine justices consider Polselli v. IRS, which is expected to have sweeping implications for Fourth Amendment right protections against unreasonable searches and seizures as it pertains to the federal tax collecting agency. This case comes just months after the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress last year injected $45 billion to ramp...

I know many of us have been commenting on threads that the belated searches of Biden properties for classified documents are just window dressing. I am only posting a separate comment about it because I don't think that fact is getting the attention it deserves. As much as it is difficult to overcome the gigantic megaphone of the MSM as the propaganda organ of the Democrat Party and Deep State, I believe it is essential to get this point as much attention as possible. The left is very adept at false narratives to control public opinion. Having these FBI searches...

The FBI more than doubled the number of warrantless searches it conducted of Americans' communications data from 2020 to 2021, according to a report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.The report released on Thursday explains how U.S. intelligence agencies use Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for surveillance without a warrant of electronic communications data stored by U.S. internet service providers. ODNI pointed out that this year's report is the first to track the FBI's use of "unminimized Section 702 collection," which is raw data that the National Security Agency collects.The...

Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) revealed the FBI performed as many as 3.4 million searches of U.S. data that had been previously collected by the National Security Agency. ... The ODNI report says the FBI conducted roughly 3.39 million searches "using the identity of a presumed U.S. person" from Dec. 1, 2020, to Nov. 30, 2021. However, the number of searches for the previous 12-month period was merely [sic] 1.3 million. ... The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA...which garnered fame amid reports that former President Donald Trump had been illegally spied on during his 2016 presidential...

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) - Hunter S. Thompson's body was found in a chair in the kitchen in front of his typewriter with the word "counselor" typed in the center of the page, according to sheriff's reports. The word was typed on stationery from the Fourth Amendment Foundation, which was started to defend victims of unwarranted search and seizure, according to reports released Tuesday. It was not immediately known what, if any, significance the word had to the founder of "gonzo" journalism or to his family. Juan Thompson found his father dead Feb. 20 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the...

Lots of incriminating stuff. Here's a good tweet explaining what's in there: https://twitter.com/AnonymousAda/status/1252708336514076672

Last week, President Trump triggered the left when he tweeted a Photoshopped picture that portrayed former President Barack Obama perched midair outside Trump Tower, binoculars and listening device in hand.The liberal outlet Vox condemned the president for his “increasingly bad tweets,” before declaring “there’s no evidence the Obama administration spied on Trump.” Vox then regurgitated the false narrative that, while the FBI did surveil former Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page, “that didn’t happen until after Page left the campaign.” For years, conservatives tried to correct the record, noting that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) order gave the...

As privacy concerns grow, companies like Google and Facebook that rely on data collection and advertising for revenue are increasingly in the spotlight. But is it really possible to give up Google's vast range of services? Here are my recommended alternatives. Over the past two years, I've been switching between a succession of iPhones and a series of Android devices, using each for an extended amount of time. Spending months with each mobile platform has been a tremendously useful exercise, helping me understand the strengths and weaknesses of the two dominant smartphone options.

DNI Declassifies FISA Judge James Boasberg 2018 Ruling – FBI Conducted “Tens of Thousands” of Unauthorized NSA Database Queries… Posted on October 8, 2019 by sundance There is a lot to unpack in a decision today by the Director of National Intelligence to declassify (with redactions) a 2018 FISA court ruling about ongoing unauthorized database search queries by FBI agents/”contractors” in the period covering 2017/2018.BACKGROUND: In April 2017 the DNI released a FISA report written by Presiding Judge Rosemary Collery that showed massive abuse, via unauthorized searches of the NSA database, in the period of November 2015 through May 2016. Judge Collyer’s report specifically identified search query increases...

DUBLIN, July 5, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Google admitted to interference in Ireland’s 2018 abortion referendum but claimed that it was merely to “help voters.” In revelations made by pro-transparency website Project Veritas, YouTube “blacklisted” a large number of videos on its platform in advance of the referendum while also interfering with search results. YouTube is wholly owned by Google. When voters searched for specific terms on YouTube, the results of their searches were manually altered by Google, thus assuring that the videos selected by Google reach the top of the search results. Among the searches affected by interference from Google...

New York state’s highest court has handed law enforcement a victory​ — ruling that ​the courts have no authority to decide the constitutionality of bulk seizures of Facebook users’ private accounts​ for criminal probes. In 2014​,​ Facebook challenged Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus’ Vance’s bulk-search warrant demanding information on 381 of its users who were suspects in a major investigation into NYPD and FDNY Social Security scammers. ​More than 100 people have been convicted in the s​​cam. They claimed they were too sick to work in order to get the benefits​ ​– ​​then posted photos of themselves on social media platforms...

Supreme Court Rules for Police in Search Case he Supreme Court ruled Monday that evidence of a crime may be used against a defendant even if the police did something wrong or illegal in obtaining it. The justices voted 5-3 to reinstate the drug-related convictions of a Utah man. The ruling comes in a case in which a police detective illegally stopped defendant Joseph Edward Strieff on the streets of South Salt Lake City, Utah. A name check revealed an outstanding warrant for Strieff. Strieff was placed under arrest and searched. He was carrying methamphetamine. Justice Clarence Thomas said for...

Google has been purposely modifying searches on Hillary Clinton to steer you away from certain topic areas, like her potential indictment. View the video.

Google probably knows more about you than your mother, your partner, your boss... but chances are that you have no idea of just how much it knows. Fortunately, there's an easy way to open your eyes to the scale of just what the world's most popular search engine knows about you, your interests and your peccadillos. You may find yourself squirming when you realise Google never forgets what you've been typing into its search engine over the years, but, at least afterwards, you'll be able to do something about it. First things first, take a deep breath and visit: https://history.google.com/history/...

ROCKVILLE, MD — Thousands of motorists were brought to a standstill when police conducted a massive roadblock to find three crime suspects. Twelve lanes of traffic were shut down and swarms of armed government agents combed through a giant traffic jam performing warrantless vehicle-to-vehicle searches. The busy Tuesday morning commute was abruptly halted just after 10:00 a.m. on March 11th. One driver told ABC News that traffic stopped and he witnessed 30 police cars pass on the shoulders of I-270 near Rockville. “Then, when I saw a wall of police officers with automatic weapons approaching our cars, it was apparent...

Annals of the Security State: More Airplane Stories James Fallows May 21 2013 "My dad fought a war so this can never happen in America. I will not dishonor my father's memory by giving up what he fought for. No, sir. With all due respect, I will not consent to a search without a proper warrant." Over the weekend I related the story of Gabriel Silverstein, a businessman and pilot who for no apparent reason was subjected to a two-hour detention and invasive search by Homeland Security officials as he traveled across the country in his small plane. The picture...

The whole notion of the police "manhunt" is not a new American phenomenon. Cops chase bad guys, cops corner bad guys. Sometimes the bad guys give up quietly, sometimes they go down in a blaze of glory. But we've always had rules of engagement when it came to law enforcement interaction with the general public.