SO if we use a Phone or Bank = WE HAVE NO RIGHT TO PRIVACY = OUR FOUNDERS CRINGE! 

HOW ABSURD IS THAT?

MANY WAYS TO TRACK AQ attacks without spying on every American citizen and COLLUDING with major corporations to do it.

Constitutionality of the bulk telephony meta-data program

4th Amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their papers, houses, persons, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” 

Supreme Court = a search of a person’s home, office, car, briefcase, pocket, mail, suitcase, etc. is presumptively “unreasonable” and therefore unconstitutional GOV has probable cause the search will discover evidence relating to suspected crime.

Bulk meta-data program collection of an individual’s telephone call records a “SEARCH” of that individual within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment? 

1928 Olmstead v. USA the Supreme Court said wiretapping does NOT constitutes a “search” with strong dissents of Justices Louis Brandeis and Oliver Wendell Holmes.

1928 A “search” = a physical intrusion into a physical space owned or controlled by the person searched = 4th Amendment = does not invade any physical space owned or controlled by the individual.  

AMAZING in 1928 bulk telephony meta-data program would not be a “search” because the PHONE COMPANY LET US DO IT!  

1967 Supreme Court overruled Olmsted in Katz v. USA that the 4th Amendment “protects people, not places” so GOV can NOT engage in a “search” if its actions violate society’s “reasonable expectations of privacy” = invade privacy by intercepting their phone calls = WARRANT NEEDED! 

1967 Court = Wiretapping = A “search” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment = new forms of technology considered

1967 what does “reasonable” mean? 

1976 USA v. Miller = Individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his bank records, because he knowingly discloses his financial transactions to his bank 

1979 Smith v. Maryland (1979) = Individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his telephone company’s records of his phone calls, because he knowingly discloses his calling data to his phone company

1976 & 1979 = GOV can get telephone company calling records = NOT A SEARCH = no “reasonable expectation of privacy” in those records = made NSA’s bulk telephony meta-data program possible.

NSA QUANTUM PROGRAM = PLANTED SECRET SOFTWARE ON 100,000 computers OVER NETWORKS around the world to carry out surveillance and provide a digital highway for cyberattacks

Secret technology = Allows NSA to enter even computers not connected to the Internet beginning in 2008 USING COVERT RADIO WAVES from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted in the computers.

Obama unveils Friday a series of reforms that gives Americans more confidence their privacy is protected.