Free Republic

A majority of Americans say they support warrantless government surveillance of the Internet communications of U.S. citizens, according to a new poll by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. It's at least somewhat important for the government to sacrifice freedoms to ensure safety, most say in the survey. ...

In April 2012, a Kansas SWAT team raided the home of Robert and Addie Harte, their 7-year-old daughter and their 13-year-old son. The couple, both former CIA analysts, awoke to pounding at the door. When Robert Harte answered, SWAT agents flooded the home. He was told to lie on the floor. When Addie Harte came out to see what was going on, she saw her husband on his stomach as SWAT cop stood over him with a gun.

(CNSNews.com) - Coming soon, a new checkpoint experience for airline passengers. Testifying before a House Oversight subcommittee on Tuesday, Peter Neffenger, the new head of the Transportation Security Agency, said he envisions "a day where the checkpoint looks very different from what it does today. With the exception of the full-body scanners, "We're still largely dealing with ...the same kind of checkpoint we've had for the past decade or more. And I think we're on the cusp of a very different looking checkpoint experience in the next five years."

A nice catch by Sam Stein of HuffPo from Rand’s interview with Boston Herald Radio. Skip to around 11:00 for the key bit.I … did not expect a competition between Hillary Clinton and Rand Paul over who could conjure up a better Nazi allusion for Republicans. Or rather, I didn’t expect it until the election turned to foreign policy. “There have been a lot of dumb ideas put out,” Paul said, speaking with Boston Herald Radio. “One that the Mexicans will pay for a wall, [which] was probably the dumbest of dumb ideas. But putting a wall up between...

Attorneys in Baltimore are reviewing hundreds of convictions after an investigation revealed that police there have secretly used cell phone surveillance tools in nearly 2,000 criminal cases. Following a report in USA Today that exposed the extent of the Baltimore Police Department’s use of cell-tracking technology to locate suspects sought in connection with low-level crimes, lawyers in the city’s public defender office now tell the paper they plan to ask the court to toss out “a large number” of convictions.

On a summer's day in 1987, Minneapolis police surrounded a woman's home in the northeast corner of the city and heard their suspect's voice inside. "Tell them I left," said Robert Darren Olson. The officers forced their way in. An Amoco gas station attendant had been shot dead on University Avenue the day before, and one of the suspects, the money and the murder weapon were already in custody. Police had been tipped off that their second suspect, the getaway driver, spent his nights at the duplex. They found Olson hiding in the closet. He was later convicted of aggravated...

Over a year ago former director of both the NSA and CIA, Michael Hayden, flat out admitted, "we kill people based on metadata." He quickly distinguished between the metadata about which the debate was focused, telephone records, and other forms of surveillance metadata upon which covert actions are taken. Not surprised about the actions, I confess I was taken aback when I considered the implications that this disclosure has on Fourth Amendment jurisprudence in cyberspace. Ever since the USA-Patriot Act in 2001, I have been harping on complications of the Fourth Amendment between content and metadata in data networking. For...

While focusing their resources and political energy on the NSA’s mass collection of metadata, privacy advocates have neglected the most dangerous institutionalized violations of the Fourth Amendment: administrative subpoenas. Now a United States District Court judge in Texas has ruled for the Drug Enforcement Agency that an administrative subpoena may be used to search medical records. It was inevitable, given the march towards illegally nullifying the Fourth Amendment through use of these judge-less bureaucrat warrants authorized by Congress. Administrative subpoenas are issued unilaterally by government agencies -- meaning without approval by neutral judges -- and without probable cause stated under...

Suspicious activity noted ahead of #JadeHelm15 CHINO HILLS, Calif. (INTELLIHUB) — A reader, John Temblador, retired California State Peace Officer, CDC, witnessed a vehicle dashing through a Walmart parking lot on June 4. “at a high rate of speed”, bearing no “E” plate.Temblador thinks that the vehicle may have been conducting a “covert scan” of some type.The vehicle appears to be equipped with license plate scanning technology or code catcher technology, aimed both forward and aft to either side of the vehicle to catch every plate in the parking lot.

‘They came with a battering ram.” Cindy Archer, one of the lead architects of Wisconsin’s Act 10 — also called the “Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill,” it limited public-employee benefits and altered collective-bargaining rules for public-employee unions — was jolted awake by yelling, loud pounding at the door, and her dogs’ frantic barking. The entire house — the windows and walls — was shaking. She looked outside to see up to a dozen police officers, yelling to open the door. They were carrying a battering ram. She wasn’t dressed, but she started to run toward the door, her body in full...

Undercover agents were able to sneak fake explosives and banned weapons through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, in an investigation that revealed a massive, system-wide security failure at America's airports. The findings were part of a DHS inspector general probe. The report is still classified, but Fox News has confirmed the investigation found security failures at dozens of airports. Homeland Security officials confirmed to Fox News that TSA screeners failed 67 out of 70 tests -- or 96 percent -- carried out by special investigators known as "red teams." In one case, an undercover agent with a fake bomb strapped to...

McLennan County’s downtown jail, closed since 2010, continues to cost money in the form of utility expenses, and its future remains uncertain because of a lack of prisoners. Keeping the lights on and occasional maintenance in the facility helps prevent the jail from further dilapidation. Commissioners have spent about $1.2 million in renovations since its closing. County officials hoped the downtown facility could reopen to house overflow from the Jack Harwell Detention Center, but so far there hasn’t been one. County Judge Scott Felton said LaSalle Corrections, which manages the Jack Harwell center, could potentially house its inmates in the...

Rand is still standing. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the libertarian firebrand and GOP presidential hopeful, isn’t showing any sign he’ll relent and allow speedier votes in the Senate on controversial government surveillance programs, as weary and recess-hungry senators trudged through a rare Friday session with a packed to-do list. Paul said Friday that he hasn’t yet agreed to accelerate procedural votes — currently set for Saturday — on dueling proposals to renew expiring provisions in the PATRIOT Act. He had signaled that he might relent if he secured votes on privacy amendments, but shortly before 10 p.m. he said...

Texas Senator and GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)praised fellow presidential candidate and Senator Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) speech against the renewal of the Patriot Act on Wednesday. Cruz began, “I would note he [Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) 93% ] and I agree on a great many issues, although we don’t agree entirely on this issue, but I want to take the opportunity to thank the Senator from Kentucky for his passionate defense of liberty. His is a voice that this body needs to listen to.” And praised the prior work of Rand and his father, former Congressman Ron...

Rep. Peter King slammed Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul for speaking for hours Wednesday on the Senate floor against renewing the Patriot Act and the NSA's metadata programs the law authorizes, charging to Newsmax that he is "doing a disservice to the country and he's putting our national security at risk. "He's unnecessarily frightening the American people," the New York Republican, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in an exclusive interview. "He's making the [National Security Agency] out to be the enemy.

“Here in front of Independence Hall, I call for the president to obey the law,” Paul said when he took the microphone, as hundreds of his supporters shouted “President Paul! President Paul! President Paul!” outside Independence Hall after a separate event inside the Constitution Center across the street. The crowd went wild. “The court said last week that it is illegal to collect all of your phone records all of the time without a warrant with your name on it,” Paul said. “I call on the president today to immediately end the bulk collection of our phone records.”

It all started with an unwanted knock on the door by a government worker and it’s being answered with a $60 million lawsuit. A New Jersey family is suing the state child-protection agency after it allegedly sent a caseworker to their home to interrogate them on everything from their son’s homeschool education to questions about vaccines and guns in the house. Christopher Zimmer and his wife Nicole of Belvidere filed a civil rights complaint in April in U.S. District Court in Trenton alleging “unlawful and unconstitutional home intrusion.” “I won’t forget that morning for a long, long time,” said Christopher...

‘They came with a battering ram.” Cindy Archer, one of the lead architects of Wisconsin’s Act 10 — also called the “Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill,” it limited public-employee benefits and altered collective-bargaining rules for public-employee unions — was jolted awake by yelling, loud pounding at the door, and her dogs’ frantic barking. The entire house — the windows and walls — was shaking. She looked outside to see up to a dozen police officers, yelling to open the door. They were carrying a battering ram. She wasn’t dressed, but she started to run toward the door, her body in full...

The Justice Department is seeking an amendment proposal that will give the federal government express power to locate and hack into the computers of anyone suspected of criminal activity. However, many organizations, including Google and the American Civil Liberties Union, are concerned that the broad language of the proposal leaves potential for Fourth Amendment violations.Federal Prosecutors claim that this revision to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure  has become necessary now that crime can be committed and concealed on the internet under a veil of anonymity and masked location. But in a memo responding to the concerns civil libertarians have...

A Nevada court has ruled FBI agents can dress up as ISP repairmen to blag their way into a suspect's home without a search warrant – but must tell the courts about it when they do. The ruling stems from a case brought by the Feds against Malaysian poker player Wei Seng Phua and his son, whom the agency accused of running an illegal betting syndicate from a luxury Las Vegas villa during last year's FIFA World Cup. The duo hired the house in the grounds of Caesars Palace casino on the famous Strip, and asked for large-screen monitors, laptops,...