Keep and Bear Arms
Home Members Login/Join About Us News/Editorials Archives Take Action Your Voice Web Services Free Email
You are 1 of 490 active visitors Wednesday, October 09, 2024
EMAIL NEWS
Main Email List:
Subscribe
Unsubscribe

State Email Lists:
Click Here
SUPPORT KABA
» Join/Renew Online
» Join/Renew by Mail
» Make a Donation
» Magazine Subscriptions
» KABA Memorial Fund
» Advertise Here
» Use KABA Free Email

» JOIN/Renew NOW! «
 
SUPPORT OUR SUPPORTERS

 

YOUR VOTE COUNTS

Keep and Bear Arms - Vote In Our Polls
Do you oppose Biden's anti-gun executive orders?
Yes
No
Undecided

Current results
Earlier poll results
4769 people voted

 

SPONSORED LINKS

 
» U.S. Gun Laws
» AmeriPAC
» NoInternetTax
» Gun Show On The Net
» 2nd Amendment Show
» SEMPER FIrearms
» Colt Collectors Assoc.
» Personal Defense Solutions

 

 


News & Editorials
Search:
 
 

Urgent alert: Congress on verge of approving warrantless secret searches

By Dave Kopel

Independence Institute, http://i2i.org

[Advance draft of article scheduled for publication in National Review Online, http://www.nationalreview.com] Please feel free to forward.

 

No person’s liberty is safe in the last week of Congress—traditionally a time when civil liberties invasions such as wire-tapping, gun prohibitions, and the like are snuck through in the final frantic hours, with no opportunity for public opposition. This Congress is no exception. As soon as Tuesday, the House may vote on a bill, which has already passed the Senate, to drastically expand government power to conduct secret searches without judicial approval.

The bill in question comes from Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). It is S. 2516, "The Fugitive Apprehension Act." The bill allows the government to obtain any kind of document it wants, without first getting a search warrant or a subpoena from a court. These documents include any written or electronic document possessed by an individual—or possessed by a third party (such as bank records, credit card records, telephone records, school records, or an Internet Service Provider’s customer records). In other words, the bill guts the Fourth Amendment requirement that private documents should be searched only after a court issues a warrant based upon probable cause.

Even worse, section 3(g) of the bill allows these document seizures to be conducted secretly, so that the individual might never be told that his bank records, Internet records, or other documents have been searched by the government.

The bill currently applies to apprehension of "fugitives," which include people who have been charged (not convicted) of a crime, at both the federal or state level. In other words, if your wife’s second cousin never showed up in court for his drunk driving trial, the government could look at your bank records, telephone records, Internet records, and every other document about you—without a court order, and without ever telling you.

There is no law enforcement need for this provision. Under the All Writs Act, a United States Attorney can go to court, and present reasons why he needs access to private records. If the court agrees (it almost always does), the court issues a subpoena to obtain the records. This system is working well, and, notably, the United States Attorneys are not asking to change the law.

Even so, there is a very strong chance that S. 2516 will become law next week, unless Congress hears of widespread opposition. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is leading the fight against the bill on Capitol Hill, is urging to citizens to contact their Representatives and their Senators over the weekend and on Tuesday morning, in every way possible: at town hall meetings, by calling DC and local Congressional offices, and by sending e-mail or faxes. Because House Speaker Dennis Hastert has great discretion over whether to bring S. 2516 to the House floor, King urges people all over the U.S. to call his office.

The main Congressman opposing S. 2516 is Representative Bob Barr (R-Georgia). The very conservative Barr is a former United States Attorney, and one of the most prominent "law and order" Republicans in Congress—as shown by his leadership in the effort to impeach President Clinton. While the ACLU is generally considered liberal, and Barr conservative, both agree that protecting the Fourth Amendment transcends party or ideology.

Should S. 2516 become law, it would set a precedent for warrantless, secret searches on other subjects—including firearms laws. This is one reason why Barr, one of the staunchest Second Amendment defenders in Congress, is opposing the bill.

There is also a possibility that S. 2516 may be snuck through as an amendment to HR 3048, "The Presidential Protection Act of 2000." Of course S. 2516 has nothing to do with Presidential Protection. Instead, the bill is about constitutional destruction.


Take Action Right Now

  • To email every congress member in both the House and Senate (or any combination thereof), click here to use our automailer.

  • To send one single fax to all congress members for whom we have an email address, draft your fax and send it to (515) 678-2246.  Your fax will be sent by our Powerfax system to over 1,000 fax machines, covering faxes at D.C. offices and home state offices of every congress member for whom we have fax numbers.

 

Print This Page
Mail To A Friend
 QUOTES TO REMEMBER
We'll take one step at a time, and the first is necessarily - given the political realities - very modest. We'll have to start working again to strengthen the law, and then again to strengthen the next law and again and again. Our ultimate goal, total control of handguns, is going to take time. The first problem is to slow down production and sales. Next is to get registration. The final problem is to make possession of all handguns and ammunition (with a few exceptions) totally illegal. — Pete Shields, founder of Handgun Control, Inc., New Yorker Magazine, June 26, 1976, pg. 53

COPYRIGHT POLICY: The posting of copyrighted articles and other content, in whole or in part, is not allowed here. We have made an effort to educate our users about this policy and we are extremely serious about this. Users who are caught violating this rule will be warned and/or banned.
If you are the owner of content that you believe has been posted on this site without your permission, please contact our webmaster by following this link. Please include with your message: (1) the particulars of the infringement, including a description of the content, (2) a link to that content here and (3) information concerning where the content in question was originally posted/published. We will address your complaint as quickly as possible. Thank you.

 
NOTICE:  The information contained in this site is not to be considered as legal advice. In no way are Keep And Bear Arms .com or any of its agents responsible for the actions of our members or site visitors. Also, because this web site is a Free Speech Zone, opinions, ideas, beliefs, suggestions, practices and concepts throughout this site may or may not represent those of Keep And Bear Arms .com. All rights reserved. Articles that are original to this site may be redistributed provided they are left intact and a link to http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com is given. Click here for Contact Information for representatives of KeepAndBearArms.com.

Thawte.com is the leading provider of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and digital certificate solutions used by enterprises, Web sites, and consumers to conduct secure communications and transactions over the Internet and private networks.

KeepAndBearArms.com, Inc. © 1999-2024, All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy