Freedom and liberty are slipping away in America, and nobody seems to notice.
Law enforcement does not need a warrant to hack someone’s computer, according to a just-unsealed court order written by a federal judge in Virginia.
This case, United States v. Matish, is one of at least 135 cases currently being prosecuted nationwide stemming from the FBI’s investigation of the child pornography site called “Playpen.”
US District Judge Henry Coke Morgan, Jr. further explained in the order on Thursday that warrantless government-sanctioned hacking “resembles” law enforcement looking through broken blinds. In this case, however, a warrant was sought and obtained. Judge Morgan found that even if the warrant did not exist—or was found to be invalid—the search would have been valid. [Emphasis added.]
It’s easy to be against child pornography. No rational person, even an advocate of limited government, wants to stop the government from apprehending and prosecuting child molesters or pornographers.
However, does this justify government dropping the principle of American justice which requires a warrant to search and seize property? Note that the judge in this case plainly states that even without a warrant, the federal government was justified in probing people’s computers. Individual rights, the Constitution and due process no longer apply, not so long as the government has actual (or alleged) good intentions.
If the government can do this when searching for child pornographers or molesters, it’s not a stretch to think the FBI can do this when searching for terrorists too. “Terrorists” is a much more vague and loose term; does this mean we no longer need search warrants for homes and businesses, either? And what about the current Attorney General, who wishes to legally go after people who criticize Islam or climate change theory? Or our current Vice President, who once referred to opponents of Obamacare as economic terrorists? Will their computers be subject to warrantless searches too?
We have become a nation of lazy thinkers. Lazy thinkers stop at, “Well, if you’ve got nothing to hide, then you don’t have to worry about government searching your computer.” But this would be like saying, “Well, if you’ve got nothing to hide, there should be no concern if the police want to enter your house in the middle of the night, and go through your closets and desks, without a search warrant or any other kind of legal validation.” Mindless, unthinking citizens who populate the United States today are the opposite of the kinds of people who founded America. We’re letting liberty go because we simply don’t wish to take the time to think in principle, and act on principle. At least not the majority of us.
In a nation of lazy thinkers, it’s easy for the government to rationalize searching computers without a warrant as no different from police peering through a window with broken blinds, which also does not require a warrant. No such thing is true. Breaking into someone’s computer is the same as breaking into someone’s house. If we’ve reached the point where not only the Constitution, but the basic due process of law, is so unimportant that we ignore the requirement for governments to have a warrant, then we really are finished as a free society.
At the time of America’s founding, such claims by government officials sparked a Revolution. In 2016, it barely generates a yawn.
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, 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.
“The implications for the decision, if upheld, are staggering: law enforcement would be free to remotely search and seize information from your computer, without a warrant, without probable cause, or without any suspicion at all,” Mark Rumold, an Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney, wrote. “To say the least, the decision is bad news for privacy.”
It’s more than a violation of the right to privacy. It’s a violation of individual sovereignty over their own minds, bodies and lives. Individual sovereignty is precisely what the Constitution was designed to protect.
Increasingly, government is permitted to do whatever it wishes so long as it can say it’s acting in the name of “the children,” fighting “terrorism” (except when planned by Muslims), or opposing “hatred” (meaning: dissenting opinion). Once we let government rationalize away requiring a warrant for search and seizure, you might as well burn what’s left of the Constitution.
We’re the generation letting it happen.
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