On Wednesday, Alex Kozinski, the Chief Justice for the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals, published (with his law clerk, Stephanie Grace) an article in alternative media outlet Axis of Logic entitled "Remember what the Fourth Amendment protects? No? Just as well."
“We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of a dear friend, the Fourth Amendment," begins the judge's lament. "Born on the freedom-loving soil of early America, the Fourth Amendment will be remembered as the bulwark of the liberty we once called privacy. For ye, we mourn.”
The United States Constitution's Fourth Amendment is dedicated to preventing “unreasonable searches and seizures”. Essentially, it is the government's guarantee of personal privacy, initially a response to the many abuses of the King of England's 'general warrants' (which were a license to wantonly invade homes in England at will -- and were even less restrained in Colonial America).
Judge Kozinski asserts that the Fourth Amendment is dead and that "you’re the murderer. We all are." Among Kozinski's 'weapons of choice' are "the smartphone, which, with our collective blessing, allows law enforcement to monitor our real-time geographic location."
Among other things, this alludes to the recent iPhone and Android location-tracking controversy, in which it was discovered that many users' movements were being recorded, transmitted, and backed up into a database. This dovetails with other GPS and location-tracking capabilities -- as well as most mobile networks' willingness to turn records over to law enforcement, not to mention the increasing ease with which third-parties may 'eavesdrop' on such wireless signals.
Kozinski notes the efforts of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore) to require warrants to access this information, but also feels that "such legislation may come too late to save the Fourth Amendment".
The judge mentions the doctrine of "reasonable expectation of privacy", which was added to the application of the 4th Amendment in 1967 during a case that tested the legality of wiretapping a telephone booth. In short, one cannot reasonably expect privacy in a public place -- and ever since then, the tricky legal question has been to establish what is 'reasonably' public.
Kozinski wryly observes that membership cards and credit cards create plenty of 'public' information that can be accessed and used to track a person's movements and habits to the benefit of law enforcement; this is known as "the third party doctrine".
From there, Kozinski names third party information sources such as eBay, Amazon, TomTom, and Google (who "not only collects data on what websites we visit but uses its satellites to take pictures of our homes"). The judge also mentions the controversial plan by Mexico to implement iris scanners that track out movements "through airport security, making ATM withdrawals and buying groceries, quite literally, with the blink of an eye."
"With so little left private," Kozinski concludes, "the Fourth Amendment is all but obsolete. Where police officers once needed a warrant to search your bookshelf for 'Atlas Shrugged,' they can now simply ask Amazon.com if you bought it. Where police needed probable cause before seizing your day planner, they can now piece together your whereabouts from your purchases, cellphone data and car’s GPS. Someday soon we’ll realize that we’ve lost everything we once cherished as private."
James Lee Phillips is a Senior Writer & Research Analyst for IBG.com. With offices in Dallas, Las Vegas, and New York, & London, IBG is quickly becoming the leading expert in Internet Marketing, Local Search, SEO, Website Development and Reputation Management. More information can be found at www.ibg.com. PageRage provides free Facebook layouts and Facebook backgrounds for your Facebook profile. PageRage caters to numerous styles and design preferences.
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