MESSAGE
| DATE | 2013-12-29 |
| FROM | Ron Guerin
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] NSA ruling error
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On 12/28/2013 05:46 PM, Ruben Safir wrote:
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/25529677
> This judge is a total asshole and a danger to the pubic
>
> Call his chambers and tell him you can't accept the government
> eroding your 4th amendment protections, regardless of what individuals may
> or may not do in our private lives.
Save some of your anger for the judges whose fault this is. An absurd
Supreme Court ruling from 1979 underpins the whole thing, and you can't
expect correct outcomes to flow from incorrectly decided SCOTUS cases.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_v._Maryland
"First, we doubt that people in general entertain any actual expectation
of privacy in the numbers they dial. All telephone users realize that
they must "convey" phone numbers to the telephone company, since it is
through telephone company switching equipment that their calls are
completed."
I doubt that anyone has /ever/ dialed a phone number with anything /but/
an expectation of privacy, unless they suspected an illegal violation of
their privacy was for some reason, in-progress. It's a private business
transaction between you and the phone company. There's nothing remotely
public about it. It would have been unreasonable to think your phone
dialing was anything but private until SCOTUS gave cover to such
activities. /They/ and they alone, created the possibility that people
might have a reasonable expectation that someone somewhere, was probably
violating the constitution under color of office.
- Ron
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