Those who take police accountability seriously had reason to celebrate this month when Amber Guyger, the police officer who walked into 26-year-old Botham Jean’s apartment, mistook it for her own, and fired a fatal shot into him, was found guilty of murder and...
Fourth Amendment
Surveillance: You’d Better Chose Wisely
I’ve often joked that George Orwell’s novel 1984 was meant to be a warning, not an instruction manual. And yet every day the U.S. marches closer and closer to making Orwell’s dystopian nightmare a reality. Nobody wants this. So, why is it happening? Because way too...
Federal Judges Are Waging War on the Fourth Amendment
In 1984, as part of Ronald Reagan’s renewed war on drugs, the Drug Enforcement Administration launched Operation Pipeline. This program was inspired by the strategies employed by state troopers in New Mexico who, after pulling somebody over, asked specific questions...
Absolute Federal Supremacy: The Myth That Just Won’t Go Away
It never goes away – the myth of absolute federal supremacy. I got an email from a Tenth Amendment Center volunteer in Illinois last week. He has been working to get the Fourth Amendment Protection Act introduced there. Passage of the bill would end state cooperation...
Google is tracking your life and the police want that data
Jennifer Lynch at the Electronic Frontier Foundation discusses the use by law enforcement of data stored in a Google database called Sensorvault. She also references a good New York Time article which shows specific uses of the data by police. The data is collected...
The TSA’s Secret Watchlist for Travelers Who Don’t Kowtow
“I need a witness!” exclaimed the worried Transportation Security Administration screener at Reagan Washington National Airport a few months ago. Because I had forgotten to remove my belt before going through a TSA scanner, he explained that I must undergo an...
Ted Cruz and Republican Love for Authority
As midterms draw near Ted Cruz has ramped up his political attacks on his Democrat opponent. One attack on Twitter was particularly interesting. In a bizarre tweet, Cruz posted a video of Beto O’Rourke speaking in front of a predominately black church about...
The Constitutional Reasons to Oppose Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court
After two days of political theater, the Senate Judiciary Committee agreed to delay the vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court for a week. In that time, the FBI will conduct an investigation surrounding the allegations made against him by Christine...
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