http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20102518-83/justice-dept-loses-round-in-warrantless-phone-tracking/?tag=nl.e757By: Don Reisinger
September 7, 2011 6:02 AM PDT
According to the group, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered the Justice Department to hand over names and case docket numbers in cases where it "accessed cell phone location data without a warrant."
"Today's decision is a significant victory in the fight against warrantless tracking of Americans by their government," the ACLU wrote on its site yesterday following the court's decision. "There is no good reason for DOJ to keep this case information secret, except to keep the American people in the dark about what its own government is doing and stifle debate about the new tracking powers the government is claiming."
~snip~
"Because cell site location information implicates an expectation of privacy that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable, the Fourth Amendment requires that the government obtain a warrant based on probable cause prior to collecting this information," the ACLU said last year in its friend-of-the-court brief.
In its own case, the ACLU expects the Department of Justice to hand over the tracking information now that the Appeals court has ruled in its favor. However, the Justice Department could still petition the Supreme Court to hear its case.
Read more:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20102518-17/justice-dept-loses-round-in-warrantless-phone-tracking/#ixzz1XixvarkW