NSA surveillance may be legal — but it’s unconstitutional
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/nsa-surveillance-may-be-legal--but-its-unconstitutional/2013/06/21/b9ddec20-d44d-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story_1.html
OK, what do you expect from a blabbermouth corporatist media that published state secrets to Al Qaeda eyes? Of course they will attempt to paint their conduct as heroic and the govt's conduct as dastardly, no matter how hard they have to dig to find a compliant "expert".
EVERYBODY IS AN EXPERT ON THE CONSTITUTION. It is a contract BY US, FOR US, ABOUT US, and is meant to be understood in the plain language that it is written.
The 4th Amendment secures (1) PERSONS, (2) HOMES, (3) PAPERS and (4) EFFECTS, but only from UNREASONABLE SEARCHES and/or SEIZURES.
Making copies is not particularly a "Seizure" in the common sense of the word, which means to the general public a "taking" which deprives the owner of the possession and use of the seized physical object. ONLY PHYSICAL OBJECTS ARE CAPABLE OF BEING SEIZED.
Public highways are NOT PRIVATE. The police may freely tail a subject from 123 Some Street to 456 Other Street without a warrant. The same person's VOICE transiting from 123 Some Street to 456 Other Street is likewise traveling on a PUBLIC NETWORK, albeit one which is privately owned using bandwidth or monopolies granted by PUBLIC AUTHORITY.
There is no expectation of privacy using PUBLIC NETWORKS for the switching settings.
(1) The SWITCHES ARE NOT YOUR PROPERTY. You have no ownership portion of those switch setting.
(2) the billing (timing) computers are NOT YOUR PROPERTY. You have no ownership over that data.
(3) Current Copyright law issues a COPYRIGHT automatically on your phone bill the instant it issues from the printer, and that copyright is bestowed upon the PHONE COMPANY who can sue you in court if you publish copies of your phone bill.
To recap: Phone metadata is not PERSONS, not HOUSES, not PAPERS and not EFFECTS. The data is not your property and is on a public network and has no expectations of privacy.
The govt serves the warrant on the PHONE COMPANY, not on the CUSTOMERS. That ought to be a clue how the CONSTITUTIONAL LAWS operate in America.
