To: exodus
Why do you think it is a 4th Amendment violation?
# 78 by JD86
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The 4th Amendment, to me, enumerates our right to be left alone. Our private life is our own. If our neighbor asked us what we planned on doing, and why we were going to do it, we would be justified in telling him to mind his own business. If he saw us buy a car with cash, and demanded an accounting, we would be justified in telling him to mind his own business. Substitute "government" for "neighbor" and we still would be justified in saying "mind your own business."
The only legal exception would be in the investigation of wrong-doing, supported by the oath of an accuser. Even then, a limit would be set defining only investigation into relevant areas of the accused's life; wholesale interference with his privacy would not be allowed.
Contrast that with the pervasive scope of our government's surveillance today. ANY citizen can become the target of investigation, while doing nothing more than using cash to acquire property. With no oath from an accuser, without even a hint of wrong-doing, with no limit on the intenstiy of the violation of the citizen's privacy, a man has to justify every facet of his life to people who have no reason to be bothering him.
I see that as a clear violation of the restriction placed on government by the 4th Amendment.