SECRET SERVICE CLEARED TO TRACK CELLPHONES ABSENT WARRANT
Feds OK'd for Stingrays, minus 4th Amendment
Secret Service agents are now allowed to use cellphone-tracking technology, the devices known as Stingrays, without having to obtain warrants from a court, a Homeland Security official told Congress in a hearing about the federal law enforcement division’s new policy.
Assistant secretary Seth Stodder said the devices, which don’t capture telephone call conversations or text messages, would allow Secret Service agents to better protect the president and high-ranking political officials if agents don’t have to go through the Fourth Amendment process of obtaining a judge’s signature to approve the tracking of a specific person or suspect, the Associated Press reported.
http://www.theblaze.com/contributio...neak-hit-secret-service-grabs-tracking-power/
Or, in the words of the government’s appointed spokesman, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Seth Stodder, in widely reported remarks: The Secret Service is now joining the Justice Department is claiming “exigent circumstances” to use cellphone tracking technology, i.e. Stingrays, without first obtaining warrants.
It’s just too dang time-consuming, he said. And the people who need protection, like the president, are just too important to subject to bothersome constitutional requirements.
He used fancier language, of course, while explaining just why federal law enforcement doesn’t need to abide the Constitution.
“The key exception that we envision is the Secret Service’s protective mission,” Stodder said, according to media reports. “In certain circumstances where you could have an immediate threat to the president and you have cryptic information, our conclusion in drawing the line between security and privacy here is to err on the side of protection.”
Well, isn’t that special.
Feds OK'd for Stingrays, minus 4th Amendment
Secret Service agents are now allowed to use cellphone-tracking technology, the devices known as Stingrays, without having to obtain warrants from a court, a Homeland Security official told Congress in a hearing about the federal law enforcement division’s new policy.
Assistant secretary Seth Stodder said the devices, which don’t capture telephone call conversations or text messages, would allow Secret Service agents to better protect the president and high-ranking political officials if agents don’t have to go through the Fourth Amendment process of obtaining a judge’s signature to approve the tracking of a specific person or suspect, the Associated Press reported.
http://www.theblaze.com/contributio...neak-hit-secret-service-grabs-tracking-power/
Or, in the words of the government’s appointed spokesman, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Seth Stodder, in widely reported remarks: The Secret Service is now joining the Justice Department is claiming “exigent circumstances” to use cellphone tracking technology, i.e. Stingrays, without first obtaining warrants.
It’s just too dang time-consuming, he said. And the people who need protection, like the president, are just too important to subject to bothersome constitutional requirements.
He used fancier language, of course, while explaining just why federal law enforcement doesn’t need to abide the Constitution.
“The key exception that we envision is the Secret Service’s protective mission,” Stodder said, according to media reports. “In certain circumstances where you could have an immediate threat to the president and you have cryptic information, our conclusion in drawing the line between security and privacy here is to err on the side of protection.”
Well, isn’t that special.