Thanks To Months Of Doing Nothing, Senate Allows DOJ's Rule 41 Changes To Become Law
from the do-nothing-lawmakers-manage-to-accomplish-something dept
The amendments to Rule 41 are now law, thanks to Sen. John Cornyn, who prevented bills opposing the immediate adoption of the changes from being debated.
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Chris Coons (D-Del) took to the floor and unsuccessfully asked for unanimous consent to either pass or formally vote on three bills to delay or prevent updates to the process used by law enforcement to get a warrant to hack suspects' computers.
“We simply can’t give unlimited power for unlimited hacking,” Daines argued.
[...]
But the bid to prevent the imminent changes to Rule 41 ended quickly. After Wyden spoke, Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) immediately objected to all three bills, without waiting to hear from Coons and Daines.
But Cornyn alone can't be blamed for this outcome. A vast majority of senators did nothing to prevent the proposed changes from becoming law -- even though the decision has been in their hands since the Supreme Court's approval in April.
The FBI and others will be able to take advantage of the removal of jurisdictional limits to search computers anywhere in the world using a single warrant issued by a magistrate judge. It will also be granted the same power for use in the disruption of botnets -- in essence, searches/seizures of devices owned by US citizens suspected of no wrongdoing.
Cornyn, who prevented any debate over the "updates" to Rule 41, seems closely aligned with the DOJ's views -- that these changes will have "little effect" on civil liberties because the FBI, etc. "will still have to get a warrant."
Sure, warrants are still involved, but the scope of what can be accessed with a single warrant has been expanded greatly. And the DOJ has yet to explain how it's going to prevent law enforcement agencies from shopping around for the most compliant magistrates, now that they're not required to perform searches in the issuing court's jurisdiction. The DOJ also hasn't adequately explained what sort of notification process it will use when performing its botnet cleanups.
What it has done, however, is issue a statement saying the ends justify the means.
In an effort to address concerns, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell wrote a blog post this week arguing that the benefits given to authorities from the rule changes outweighed any potential for "unintended harm."
The DOJ wanted fewer restrictions, more power, and the opportunity to treat any appearance of anonymization software as an excuse to deploy these newly-granted powers. The Senate -- for the most part -- gave it everything it wanted by doing nothing at all to stop it.
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Filed Under: doj, fbi, hacking, john cornyn, nit, ron wyden, rule 41, surveillance, warrants
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Strange wording
What about "intended harm" then? Why even say it this way? Am I reading too much into their poor excuse of an excuse?
Really, it looks like a perfect bait for paranoid trolls out there.
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Re: Strange wording
It's not very strange. Ostensibly they mean to harm criminal groups.
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But the bid to prevent the imminent changes to Rule 41 ended quickly. After Wyden spoke, Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) immediately objected to all three bills, without waiting to hear from Coons and Daines.
One person completely stopped cold any debate or discussion of a massive increase in the DOJ's power, allowing the changes to go through unopposed, not because they were voted for, but simply because they weren't voted against.
Nice to know that all it takes is a single person in the right/wrong place in order to allow the various agencies to screw the public over in new and bigger ways.
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It solves the problem of the FBI committing multiple reprehensible crimes, because there is a new generic defense *ante ex post facto*. One (typically a member of upper government) may not be prosecuted for breaking a law that is currently no longer a law, no matter how heinous and blatant the crimes were.
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With friends like these, who needs democracy?
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fuck it, I need nothing.
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amys white knickers and spreadable legs and vagina to fuck hard
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Criminal organisation
I'd like other countries to step up and arrest anyone associated with the FBI immediately, on grounds of belonging to a criminal organisation -- and of course, to make it very clear to the USA that they will do that.
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Just think about that for a minute. There is a foreign government out there that will, without hesitation, break the laws I live under and the souvereign domain of my country to attack me digitally, and openly admits to that practice and calls it right and just. That is not the position of an ally, or even a friend. That is the position of an agressor, an enemy, that respects neither me, my country or our laws.
What the fuck are we supposed to do about that? Just accept that you will do with us what you want? Sever the global internet into nation state splinters? What the fuck? The digital policies of the U.S. threaten us all, on a global scale. And there is absolutely no remedy I can see, no way for us to do anything about this. The U.S. will continue in this avenue until it has eradicated freedom of any kind, and we are helpless.
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as if they have done a damn thing in the past eight years.
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As Padpaw noted, if there's one thing the USG is really good at it's double-standards and hypocrisy.
While the DOJ can now hack any computer anywhere with a single warrant and that's perfectly okay and now legal, if another country dared to do the same to an important US system that would of course be an unprovoked act of aggression and grounds for retaliation.
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shame on you texas
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Re: shame on you texas
Including when we act like fucking traitors to our country!
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