https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-mobilephone-idUSKBN18W1RY The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a major case on privacy rights in the digital age that will determine whether police officers need warrants to access past cellphone location information kept by wireless carriers. ... At issue is whether failing to obtain a warrant violates a defendant's right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures under the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment. ... The Supreme Court has twice in recent years ruled on major cases concerning how criminal law applies to new technology, on each occasion ruling against law enforcement. In 2012, the court held that a warrant is required to place a GPS tracking device on a vehicle. Two years later, the court said police need a warrant to search a cellphone that is seized during an arrest.
The court didn't have to hear this one and could have left the draconian/authoritarian ruling of the lower court stand. In fact, they choose not to hear thousands of cases and only choose to hear a very few. This is big news for us Civil Libertarians.
Go for it! http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article154688804.html Republicans worried about leaks consider cutting back surveillance authority "The spying by our government on Americans cannot be tolerated, and it is being tolerated," Rep. Ted Poe, a conservative Texas Republican, said in a telephone interview. Poe blamed the National Security Agency for overreaching its authority, and said he would not be surprised if the agency's employees were surveilling people like himself, a former criminal court judge. "Nothing would surprise me about what the NSA does. Unfortunately, they cannot be trusted," said Poe, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee that will weigh reauthorization. ... “To folks in that world, it’s crack,” said an aide to another Republican congressman, who spoke without authorization of the aide’s boss and asked for anonymity. “You’ve got to get the genie back in the box, and that’s really hard.”
No. A major disappointment. We know for sure it wouldn't be stopped if Clinton was elected. But it ain't over yet. If republicans pass a Bill, Trump may sign it and we're all good.
