“Should this have happened? Bikkannavar is, after all, a natural-born US citizen. He’s also enrolled in the CBP’s Global Entry program, which allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the US.”
“The nomination of Jeff Sessions to the office of Attorney General has made many criminal justice advocates nervous, as he has a long history of justifying the practice of policing for profit. On Tuesday, Trump confirmed these fears when he threw his support behind the controversial practice, saying that he saw ‘no reason’ to restrict law enforcement’s use of civil asset forfeiture. Ignoring the substantive concerns over the practices’ disregard for due process, Trump even threatened to ‘destroy the career’ of libertarian-leaning Texas legislator Konni Burton for her outspoken opposition to the practice, a comment met with approving laughter from the law enforcement officials in attendance.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/highway-robbery-gets-presidential-seal-of-approval/
“President Donald Trump invited the sheriff of a small Texas County to ‘destroy’ the career of a state senator who sought to ban a controversial law enforcement practice by naming the lawmaker during a White House meeting.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-sheriff-asset-forfeiture-texas-234740
“Lately, there’s been a lot of rhetoric comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. The concern is that a Nazi-type regime may be rising in America. That process, however, began a long time ago. In fact, following the second World War, the U.S. government recruited Hitler’s employees, adopted his protocols, embraced his mindset about law and order, implemented his tactics in incremental steps, and began to lay the foundations for the rise of the Fourth Reich.”
“CBP recently began asking foreign visitors to the U.S. from Visa Waiver Countries for their social media identifiers. We raised concerns that the policy would be extended to cover Americans and private data. It appears our fears have come true far faster than we expected.”
“Anecdotes and online braggadocio about tax avoidance are not a reasonable basis to believe that all Coinbase users are tax cheats whose financial lives should be opened to IRS investigators and the hackers looking over their shoulders. There must be some specific information about particular users, or else the IRS is seeking a general warrant, which the Fourth Amendment denies it the power to do.”
https://fee.org/articles/the-irs-just-declared-war-on-bitcoin-privacy/
“The FBI violated the Fourth Amendment by recording more than 200 hours of conversation at the entrance to a county courthouse in the Bay Area, a federal judge has ruled. Federal agents planted the concealed microphones around the San Mateo County Courthouse in 2009 and 2010 as part of an investigation into alleged bid-rigging at public auctions for foreclosed homes. The FBI recorded private conversations between members of the general public, including ‘two women discussing details of their personal lives that ranged from the private to the salacious.’ The ruling runs counter to a ruling by another judge in the same district, also reported by The Recorder.”
“The US House of Representatives voted Thursday to block an amendment that would have prevented the government from stepping in to force weakened encryption and security backdoors. Although Politico reports the provision received increasing support in the House over the past two years, that support has weakened in the wake of the Sunday’s mass shooting in Orlando. After Sunday’s tragedy, the measure’s opponents pointed to suspected Islamic State sympathizer Omar Mateen’s attack on a gay nightclub to justify giving law enforcement increased spying powers and easier access to private data.”
https://www.engadget.com/2016/06/16/house-votes-down-privacy-measure-blocking-backdoors/
“A Senate amendment that would have allowed the FBI to search a suspect’s phone and online records without a court order came very close to becoming a reality today. The legislation, introduced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Richard Burr (R-NC) in the wake of the recent mass shooting in Orlando, missed the necessary 60 votes it needed to pass by just two votes. The amendment in question would have allowed the FBI to use ‘National Security Letters’ to demand that your internet or cellphone provider turn over certain account information including login history, call records and IP address.”
https://www.engadget.com/2016/06/22/warrantless-data-searches-narrowly-miss-senate-approval/
“Law enforcement could request warrants allowing mass cracking of thousands of computers at once. The Supreme Court, which oversees the Rules, submitted the changes to the US Congress in April. This is an unprecedented, broad government cracking authorization, and it is dangerous to the privacy and security of all Internet users. The changes to Rule 41 target Internet users who take steps to protect their online privacy — this could discourage use of privacy tools, and even weaken their effectiveness by exploiting vulnerabilities in such tools rather than helping to fix them.”
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/protect-your-privacy-resist-mass-cracking-by-us-law-enforcement