Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

November 20, 2012

Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermontintroduced a bill advertised as a measure intended to protect the online privacy of Americans. By the time lobbyists for law enforcement agencies were finished re-writing the legislation, Leahy?s bill was nothing less than a proposal to repeal the Fourth Amendment, at least as it applies to cyberspace.

The revised bill would permit police departments nation-wide and at least 22 federal agencies to have unfettered access to e-mail, social media accounts, and other online communications without a warrant. The original draft required police to obtain the constitutionally mandated search warrant before having access to those communications. The new, law enforcement-dictated version would allow police to set aside that non-negotiable due process guarantee merely by claiming that an emergency exists. Such actions would not even be subject to court review after the fact.

Although the bill relieves police agencies of all constitutional impediments to surveillance, it would impose new duties on internet service providers. The measure would require providers to notify law enforcement agencies before they inform customers that they have been targeted for a search.

This is a bill the East German Stasi secret police would have loved ? and it was written with the input of American police agencies.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.