A federal judge has admonished the Justice Department on violations of the 4th
WASHINGTON — A federal judge has admonished the Justice Department for repeatedly requesting overly broad searches of people’s email accounts, a practice that he called “repugnant” to the Constitution.
The unusually sharp rebuke by Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola came last week in a kickback investigation involving a defense contractor. The case highlights the broad authority the government believes it has in searching email accounts, a power that gives the Justice Department potential access to a trove of personal information about anyone it investigates, even in routine criminal cases.
“The government continues to submit overly broad warrants and makes no effort to balance the law enforcement interest against the obvious expectation of privacy email account holders have in their communications,” Judge Facciola wrote.
But, he said, prosecutors must show probable cause for everything they seize, adding that Internet companies can easily search for specific emails, names and dates that are relevant to an investigation. He said he had raised similar concerns 20 times between September and December 2013. In this particular case, prosecutors wanted every email, contact, picture and transaction record associated with an account stored on Apple servers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/us/judge-rebukes-officials-over-requests-for-broad-email-searches.html
It is significant, however, that the surveillance request denied by Facciola relates to a criminal investigation, unrelated to terrorism. This demonstrates that the use by the Obama administration of blanket warrants enabling them to seize all information on a person's Internet accounts is not limited to terrorism, as is frequently claimed, but is part of a program of general mass illegal spying on the American people.
Facciola’s ruling states in no uncertain terms that the Obama administration has aggressively and repeatedly sought expansive, unconstitutional warrants, ignoring the court’s insistence for specific, narrowly targeted surveillance requests.
“The government continues to submit overly broad warrants and makes no effort to balance the law enforcement interest against the obvious expectation of privacy email account holders have in their communications…
The government continues to ask for all electronically stored information in email accounts, irrespective of the relevance to the investigation,” wrote Judge Facciola.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/03/21/nsar-m21.html
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Bravo!
