Constitution Free Zone (CFZ) FBI avoids warrant by having TSA search computer at airport Constitution Free Zone (CFZ) !!!

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Barry Steinhardt <bsteinhardt () earthlink net>
Date: April 19, 2010 9:38:23 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] FBI avoids warrant by having TSA search computer at airport
Reply-To: Barry Steinhardt <bsteinhardt () earthlink net>

Brock is right the searches go well beyond those conducted by the TSA. They also go way beyond air travel and what most 
of us think of as the  border of the United States.

The Federal Government (The Bush and now Obama Administrations) has established a Constitution Free Zone (CFZ)  that 
extends 100 miles beyond the physical borders.  

The consequences for the almost 2/3 of American's live in the rights lite zone have been startling. If carried out to 
their logical extreme, they would be profound.

There is a lot more about CFZ on the ACLU website at 
http://www.aclu.org/national-security_technology-and-liberty/are-you-living-constitution-free-zone.

Barry Steinhardt





-----Original Message----- 
From: Dave Farber 
Sent: Apr 19, 2010 9:19 AM 
To: ip 
Subject: [IP] FBI avoids warrant by having TSA search computer at airport 

> From: "Brock N. Meeks" <bnmeeks () verizon net>
> To: <dave () farber net>
> Date: April 18, 2010 10:29:32 PM EDT
> Subject: Re: [IP] FBI avoids warrant by having TSA search computer at airport
Nothing new here other than another court decision affirming the right of Homeland Security to search electronic 
devices of all kinds when entering (or reentering) the U.S.   And was this really the TSA that was involved?  TSA 
doesn’t man the border inspection, that is handled by the CBP (customs and border protection) arm of Homeland security. 
 I ask this because the article below says, “... simply because a U.S. citizen is returning from a foreign country by 
airplane.”  But this situation applies at any border crossing and TSA doesn’t handle any border duties.  


On 4/18/10 8:41 PM, "Dave Farber" <dave () farber net> wrote:





Begin forwarded message:

From: Labmanager <labmanager () gmail com>
Date: April 18, 2010 6:30:05 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: FBI avoids warrant by having TSA search computer at airport

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/18/tsa-to-download-your-itunes/ 
<http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/18/tsa-to-download-your-itunes/> 

Federal security workers are now free to snoop through more than just your undergarments and luggage at the airport. 
Thanks to a recent series of federal court decisions, the digital belongings of international fliers are now open for 
inspection. This includes reading the saved e-mails on your laptop, scanning the address book on your iPhone or 
BlackBerry and closely scrutinizing your digital vacation snapshots. 

Unlike the more common confiscations of dangerous Evian bottles and fingernail clippers, these searches are not being 
done in the name of safety. The digital seizures instead are part of a disturbing trend of federal agencies using legal 
gimmicks to sidestep Fourth Amendment constitutional protections. This became clear in an April 8 court ruling that 
found admissible the evidence obtained by officials who had peeped at a passenger's laptop files at George Bush 
Intercontinental Airport in Houston. 

According to court documents, FBI agents had identified an individual suspected of downloading child pornography on an 
Internet chat room. The G-men, however, did not want to take their evidence before a judge to obtain a search warrant, 
as the Constitution requires. Instead, they flagged the suspect's passport and asked officials at the Department of 
Homeland Security to seize and search his computer at the airport - without a warrant. Three incriminating images were 
found during the examination, but this case is not about whether a particular person is a scumbag. It's about abusing a 
principle that applies to all Americans. 

U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller found in this case that neither probable cause, justification nor warrant were 
required to seize and examine the suspect's laptop. Judge Miller, in accord with a 9th Circuit appellate ruling handed 
down two years ago, explained that "the court finds that reviewing the files of a computer does not rise to the level 
of invasion of the privacy and dignity of the individual to make the search non-routine." 

In other words, simply because a U.S. citizen is returning from a foreign country by airplane, the government thinks it 
is a "routine" matter to download sensitive business documents, personal correspondence and any other information that 
might be saved on a laptop or cell phone, regardless of whether there is any reason to suspect the traveler of a crime. 

The danger of this chain of reasoning is magnified by the courts' expansive definition of "border," which now includes 
checkpoints operating up to 100 miles from Canada or Mexico. Those traveling on the highway between Los Angeles and 
Phoenix, for example, may find themselves stopped by Department of Homeland Security officers who, literally, ask 
travelers to show their papers. Drug dogs also can be brought in to search vehicles without probable cause. 

The Fourth Amendment guarantees the right of Americans to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects" from 
unreasonable and unwarranted government intrusion. It is obvious that this right is meant to apply equally to papers 
that happen to be stored in digital form on a personal hard drive. Such protections do not disappear merely because one 
happens to be at a real - or imaginary - border. 

Because the courts have been derelict in their duty to uphold this fundamental right, it is up to Congress to prohibit 
the thinly veiled attempts to create Constitution-free zones where Americans find their privacy invaded. 

 
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