Second Circuit Court of Appeals: Warrantless collection of millions of Americans’ phone records is illegal

Of course it is. No matter how useful it is in the war on terror, and it is useful, the Patriot Act can not trump the constitution.

Via The Hill:

A federal court has decided that the National Security Agency’s bulk, warrantless collection of millions of Americans’ phone records is illegal.
The sweeping decision from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday represents a major court victory for opponents of the NSA and comes just as Congress begins a fight over whether to renew the underlying law used to justify the program.
That program “exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized,” Judge Gerard Lynch wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel.
The law “cannot be interpreted in a way that defies any meaningful limit,” he added.Additionally, the government’s rationale behind the program represents “a monumental shift in our approach to combating terrorism,” which was not grounded in a clear explanation of the law.
The Second Circuit’s decision provides the most significant legal blow to the NSA operations to date and comes more than a year after a lower court called the program “almost-Orwellian” and likely unconstitutional. The appeals court did not examine the constitutionality of the surveillance program in its ruling on Thursday.
The Second Circuit is just one of the three appeals courts examining challenges to the NSA’s phone records program, which may ultimately land at the Supreme Court.

Sad: Federal court rules government can track your cell phone location without a warrant

Hopefully, this one will go to the Supreme Court and get overturned, but I am not optimistic. There aren't a lot of Justices who actually believe in the Constitution, and what our Founding Father intended, still on the Supreme Court. I believe the idea of the government tracking their locations at all times without a warrant would have outraged the people who wrote the Constitution.

Via WaPo:

A federal appeals court in Atlanta reversed itself in a ruling Tuesday, saying that individuals have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their historical cellphone location records and so the government needs no warrant to obtain them.
The ruling was issued by the full 11-judge court of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, overturning an opinion last year by a three-judge panel.
The case arises out of the 2012 conviction of Quartavious Davis for a string of robberies in the Miami area. He appealed his conviction, in part, on grounds that the cellphone tower records used to place him near the crime scenes were obtained on a court order and should have required a warrant.
Federal investigators obtained Davis’s records with a court order based on “specific and articulable facts” showing “reasonable grounds” to believe that his cell tower location records were “relevant and material” to the investigation. That is a lesser standard than a warrant based on probable cause that the records sought will yield evidence of the crime.
“Cell tower location records do not contain private communications of the subscriber,” the court said in its ruling.

Video of the Day: This guy shutdown the police

Never Open the Door for the cops, but if you do, never consent to warrant-less searches.

SCOTUS gets one right. Your smartphone is private and requires a warrent.

Unanimous...

WASHINGTON —- Cellphones and smartphones generally cannot be searched by police without a warrant during arrests, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday in a major victory for privacy rights.

Ruling on two cases from California and Massachusetts, the justices acknowledged both a right to privacy and a need to investigate crimes. But they came down squarely on the side of privacy rights.

"Modern cellphones, as a category, implicate privacy concerns far beyond those implicated by the search of a cigarette pack, a wallet or a purse," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court.

"We cannot deny that our decision today will have an impact on the ability of law enforcement to combat crime," he said. "Privacy comes at a cost."

Scary: Federal judge has ordered Google to comply with FBI warrant-less customer data demands

Map of all Google data center locations

I remember when the Constitution actually meant something...

Via Newsmax: 

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge has ordered Google Inc. to comply with FBI warrantless demands for customer data.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston on Tuesday rejected Google’s argument that the so-called National Security Letters the company received from the FBI were unconstitutional and unnecessary. Illston ordered Google to comply with the secret demands even though she found the letters unconstitutional in March in a separate case filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

She acknowledged as much in her four-page order in the Google case made on May 20 and obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.

Illston put the Google ruling on hold until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could decide the matter. Until then, she said the Mountain View, Calif.-based company would have to comply with the letters unless it showed the FBI didn’t follow proper procedures in making its demands for customer data in the 19 letters Google is challenging.

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