"There Was No Policy In Place"

by: bytheshore73

Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 06:39:45 AM EDT

Chris Christie's warrantless monitoring of Americans' cell phones is troubling for a few reasons. The most obvious is the invasion of Americans' privacy caused by monitoring individuals private phones without a warrant. It's even more disturbing that he's now a candidate for the highest office in the state, and he doesn't even blink an eye at running roughshod over the Constitution.

"Every time that technology was used, it was with court authorization," Christie said. "That's the standard. There was no policy in place that said to us you have to get a search warrant."
Christie said the technology was used to track terrorism suspects, as well as those suspected of other crimes, and had the advantage of being "hard for the person to detect that you're doing it."
"Chris Christie wasn't sitting around wondering where everyone was. We were trying to investigate and prosecute crime, and I think our record is pretty good that we did it well," he said.

Firmly established constitutional precedent suggests this practice is blatantly illegal and unconstitutional. But even common sense says this kind of invasion of privacy is beyond the pale. To get a warrant, all Chris Christie would have had to do is show probable cause-not exactly as rigorous a standard of proof as the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard required for conviction.

Despite that, he said, "There was no policy in place that said to us you have to get a search warrant."

There was no policy in place.

Yes, Mr. Christie, there was. It's called the Constitution. Maybe you've heard of it?

bytheshore73 :: "There Was No Policy In Place"

Tags: warrantless, Chris Christie, (All Tags)

Print Friendly View

Send As Email

"There Was No Policy In Place" | 2 comments

Easy Pass (0.00 / 0)

Do you need a warrant for Easy Pass records? It's to me that is the closest parallel.

"Where ever you go, there you are." - Buckaroo Bonzai

by: William Weber (WjcW) @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 16:07:39 PM UTC

Are We Free or Are We Slaves??? (0.00 / 0)

The government should have to get a warrant anytime they wish to invade our privacy.

Here's a bit more form the article linked above....

The tracking information was released by the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys in response to a lawsuit filed last year in Washington, D.C., by the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
In its suit, the ACLU noted that recent court decisions and media reports reveal that federal agents, often from the Drug Enforcement Administration, are routinely asking courts to compel mobile carriers to provide information that enables them to locate individuals through their cell phones. Known as real-time tracking, this procedure allows officers to pinpoint a target to within 30 feet.
Kevin Bankston, an EFF senior staff attorney, said many people aren't aware that they can be tracked using the GPS chip in their cell phones, and even when the phone is not in use.
"It's time for Congress to step in and make clear that federal law requires the government to get a warrant before tracking your cell phone," he said.

Since most of the federal judiciary has been appointed by Reagan/Bush we can't rely on these courts to secure our rights. New legislation is needed on these points.

Ultimately, we may need a constitutional amendment spelling out a right to privacy.

Meanwhile, politicians who approve of America becoming a police state (no matter what party they are in) need to pay a political price.

Without our freedoms, we are no better than the Taliban or Al Qaeda or the Chinese "Communists"/Fascists or Fidel Castro etc etc etc.

by: Nick Lento @ Mon May 04, 2009 at 15:21:22 PM UTC