Feds Abused Anti-Terrorism Database To Track Chelsea Manning Supporter, Seize His Computer
We've written a number of times about the so-called Constitution-free zone that extends 100 miles inward from the borders of the United States, a place where the Border Patrol, along with the DHS and ICE, exercise the "right" to search electronic devices without a warrant. (The government has also baffingly argued that not searching your laptop doesn't provide enough of a civil liberties benefit to outweigh the potential security "gain."
As is the case with most unconstitutional acts performed by government agencies, the justification is "terrorism." Keeping our borders secure apparently means allowing federal agents to delve as deeply as they want into electronics that cross the border, even if it's someone who just went to Mexico on vacation. Presumably, David House wasn't a threat to national security when he left for Mexico, but by the time he landed at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, he was.
House worked with the Bradley Manning Support Network and this was all the "evidence" ICE needed to alert DHS agents that House would be returning from Mexico through Chicago -- and the wide-open policy on electronic searches was all the agents needed to seize and search House's phone and laptop.
House was stopped at Chicago’s O'Hare International Airport coming back from vacation in November 2010. At the time, he was working with the Bradley Manning Support Network, which was raising funds for the legal defense of the soldier who has since plead guilty to providing classified documents to WikiLeaks. DHS agents detained House, interrogated him about his political activities and beliefs, and then seized his laptop computer, mobile phone, camera, and USB drive. The agents returned House’s phone after inspecting it, but the government kept the rest of his devices for seven weeks while agents searched his files for evidence. Even after the government returned House’s physical devices, it continued to actively investigate copies of his files for nearly six more months.
The ACLU filed suit on House's behalf, claiming he was targeted for political reasons, leading to his First and Fourth Amendment rights being violated. The government tried to dismiss the suit in 2012, claiming its agents don't need reasonable suspicion or a warrant to search electronic devices at the border. The judge smacked that down, granting that the DHS has certain powers which preclude reasonable suspicion or warrants, but that those powers are still limited and that its politically-motivated actions violated House's First Amendment rights. A settlement was reached with the government, which agreed to destroy the data it gathered from its search of House's electronics and release documents related to the search.
more
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130910/08002324467/feds-abused-anti-terrorism-database-to-track-chelsea-manning-supporter-seize-his-computer.shtml
= new reply since forum marked as read
for me to be titillated by the thought of some faceless government bureaucrat seeing what I text my husband?
