◼ EDITORIAL: Obama’s license to snoop - Washington Times
In theory, grabbing someone’s digital camera or cellphone and downloading its contents is meant to catch individuals carrying child pornography or perhaps bank records providing evidence of money laundering. Homeland Security officials insist they need to be able to stop terrorists from moving “large amounts of information across the border via laptops and other electronic devices.” This is hardly plausible, considering there are plenty of easier ways to securely — and instantly — transmit the same information over the Internet without the risk of losing a physical device in transit.
Snooping bureaucrats have just given themselves a license to peep at vacation photos, pore over emails and save whatever looks interesting for future review. There’s far more reason to be concerned about misuse of such power than there is reason to think it serves a legitimate purpose.
...Homeland Security’s chief privacy officer and now the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties have given their blessing to this program. It’s a sign that these offices are serving as a rubber stamp, not the voice of reason and restraint that Congress intended.
Reform is long overdue. The Fourth Amendment couldn’t be more clear that a person’s “papers and effects” should be free from random searches, and that includes the digital version of a document. If border agents have reason to believe a particular traveler is a criminal, they should be able to convince a judge and obtain a warrant.
Since the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals feels otherwise, Congress needs to update the law so that airports are no longer treated as zones where the Constitution does not apply.
◼ The Executive Order The Press Agreed To Keep Secret For Five Hours - Andrew Kaczynski/Buzzfeed
