Unconstitutional Fishing Expeditions: The Massive Abuse Of Administrative Subpoenas By The Government
from the depressing dept
For years, we've talked about how the Justice Department has massively abused the "National Security Letters" (NSLs) process that lets it seek information from third parties without judicial oversight. At least with FBI NSLs, the FBI is required to release some (though not all) info on how they're used, which is why we have some indication of how widely they're abused. However, as Dave Kravets recently detailed in a fantastic article at Wired.com, the use of "administrative subpoenas" (NSLs are a form of administrative subpoena) allowing government officials to issue mandatory subpoenas to third parties with no oversight at all has become quite widespread. Even worse: most government agencies don't seem to have any interest in revealing any data about them. In other words, if you thought the FBI was abusing NSLs, you should probably be even more concerned about some of these others administrative subpoenas.Meet the administrative subpoena (.pdf): With a federal official’s signature, banks, hospitals, bookstores, telecommunications companies and even utilities and internet service providers — virtually all businesses — are required to hand over sensitive data on individuals or corporations, as long as a government agent declares the information is relevant to an investigation. Via a wide range of laws, Congress has authorized the government to bypass the Fourth Amendment — the constitutional guard against unreasonable searches and seizures that requires a probable-cause warrant signed by a judge.It's worth reading Kravets' full article, even if it is depressing. What amazes me is that we let this kind of stuff continue unabated. We've seen increasing surveillance and abuse over the years, but it seems that any time people push back on these processes, they're brushed off because "OMG!Terrorists!" or something along those lines. It's sad that we, as a country, seem so accepting of the government taking away basic Constitutional rights if it just screams something about terrorists and crime.
In fact, there are roughly 335 federal statutes on the books (.pdf) passed by Congress giving dozens upon dozens of federal agencies the power of the administrative subpoena, according to interviews and government reports. (.pdf)
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Filed Under: abuse, administrative subpoenas, justice department, national security letters, nsls, oversight
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It's BeCause
Cause #2) The press ignores it's entrustment to cover issues like this each and every day.
Cause #3) Most of our federally elected officials are chosen through marketing agencies.
Cause #4) The purchase of Federal Law through campaign contributions continues unabated.
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Re: It's BeCause
#2 shouldn't be since the press is really anyone that can publish, which today is everyone. It's just that we (as a society) tend not to think that way and keep holding up only a few groups/people as "The" Press.
#3 is unfortunately true, but only insofar as that is all that makes it on the ballot. We keep voting for these clowns, so marketers keep putting them on. It's like spam. We can hate it all we want, but as long as it's still profitable, it will continue.
As for #4, I don't like that politics has become so much about money, but I also loathe the idea of telling anyone whether as an individual or a group that they can't spend money to get their ideas heard, and that is what campaign contributions really boil down to. I think one way to stop it is to have an election of our representatives after every bill they pass. Either they'll continue passing bills left and right (draining their donors money to the point where none is left), or they'll only pass bills rarely and hopefully only after careful consideration. Either way, I think we'd be better off.
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Re: It's BeCause
Even Obama’s 2012 convention speech was vacant of civil liberty abusive points compared to his 2008 convention speech. No mention of this in the media.
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/democrats-scrub-civil-liberties-platform
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The other problem with National Security related laws is it is very hard to convince a congress or senate or executive to dial them back, because every one of their opponents will say they are weak on security and get them ousted in the next election. Once the cat is out of the bag, good luck getting it back in.
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Those opponents are going to find some stupid claim to use against them no matter what. They might as well vote however they want instead of toeing the line like cowards.
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Hint: That's why the Bill of Rights was included in the Constitution.
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Oh, relax america!
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Re: Oh, relax america!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2sWTwbzAcw
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ignorance is bliss...
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Fishing...
It's Good for America!!
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