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4th Circuit Holds That Obtaining Extended Cell-Site Records Requires a Warrant
schwit1 writes: In the new opinion, the Fourth Circuit (Judge Davis joined by Judge Thacker, with Judge Motz dissenting) holds that ordering a cell provider to hand over "extended" records is a Fourth Amendment search because "society recognizes an individual's privacy interest in her movements over an extended time period." The Fourth Circuit relies primarily on the "mosaic theory" arguments of the D.C. Circuit's opinion in United States v. Maynard and the concurring opinions when that case reached the Supreme Court under the name of United States v. Jones.
right here. i've got your warrant right here.
Searches under PATRIOT don't require a warrant - until the end of December.
All a Fed has to do is whisper "suspected terrorist" into the air and he can then hold you in a six by eight room with two chairs and one small table with a steel bar across one side, with no warrant or charge, until you grow old and die.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
As the now-famous case of Adnan Syed has taught us, cell site records are pointless in criminal cases because they're unreliable as a means of determining where someone is apart from a very basic (ie; telling what state or city a person is in) level. The towers a phone's signal goes through are never the same twice - even someone repeating a call in the same location a mere second later would be routed differently. Syed's case shows just how badly the police abuse this: they used cell data taken months after the fact to build a story that didn't make sense and contradicted other evidence in the case. Despite what the police think, cell site data is not GPS and is not a reliable means of locating a person. Using cell site data this way is junk science on the level of the polygraph test.
The real answer is to keep cell site data out of court entirely.
they been doing it for long time Gi.
The decision will be appealed, and as there is a split with some other jurisdictions, there is some likelihood that it will make it to the SCOTUS. It ain't over 'till its over.
Or come up with a "secret interpretation" of the ruling.
I suspect intoit is a terrorist, because of engaging in conversations with anonymous persons discussing praising Allah and blowing up Americans.
Now if only getting a warrant were an obstacle...
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Virtually ALL cell sites have multiple antennas separated by some meters, which is more than sufficient to get an angle of arrival to fractions of a degree. You don't have to do the multilateration/timing approach using multiple cell sites.
The mosaic theory wikipedia page (on the intelligence strategy) from the summary is not even REMOTELY close to the Fourth Amendment mosaic theory from the article, that the opinion relies on: http://repository.law.umich.ed...
So whoever made that mistake should also know the Fourth Circuit is talking about the paper, not the D&D stat.
But that's not mass surveillance or fishing for criminals. The war on terror turns the loss of due process into a winner-takes-all game that Americans love to support with their tough on crime, billionaires create jobs, small government == free market, everything but greed is socialism, America has the best; list of self delusions.
And the agencies across the country will continue to ignore that by violating that constitutional right. Yet, the courts will just shrug shoulders and let it happen, which is why the courts are contributing to the problem. This is why so many Americans no longer recognize the authority of the courts.
YES THEY DO.
Juris prudence. Lower laws do not trump higher laws. The boasted powers of the patriot are invalid where conflicts with the constitution are concerned.
NO THEY DO NOT.
Where foreign intelligence gathering is concerned, the target is not afforded Constitutional protection. Period. He is in time of war, suspected hence assumed guilty until proven innocent (remember this is a time of war, are you going to issue a suspected spy with a loaded firearm and a counterfeit passport?) of espionage.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel