Tag Archives: Fourth Amendment

Google released a transparency report last week showing that government snooping into your personal data is on the rise. The numbers released by the Internet giant show that law enforcement officials in the United States made 8,438 data requests over the second half of 2012, a 6 percent increase from the first six months of the year. Such requests have risen by more than 85 percent since 2010. Of the governmental requests, Google says that it complies with about 89 …

A federal judge on Jan. 8 put a temporary halt to the New York City Police Department’s controversial “stop and frisk” program as it applies to visitors and residents of a group of residential buildings in the Bronx. The buildings, which are privately owned, had been part of the Trespass Affidavit Program (TAP), in which property managers ask for increased police patrols to arrest trespassers. A plaintiff in the lawsuit, Ligon v. City of New York, is the mother of …

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today over whether police should be allowed to take blood samples of suspected drunk drivers without a warrant. The justices are looking at the case of Tyler G. McNeely, who was pulled over for speeding by Missouri police in 2010 after leaving a bar. When police smelled alcohol on his breath and saw other signs of intoxication, McNeely admitted that he had been drinking but refused to take a breathalyzer or blood test. Police …

A Texas state trooper is suspended with pay and will face a grand jury next month for conducting a body cavity search of two women on the side of a highway near Irving, Texas, in full view of passing traffic and a male trooper. Angel Dobbs and her niece Ashley Dobbs filed a lawsuit after trooper Kelley Helleson used her fingers to search the women’s vaginas and anuses without asking for consent or explaining that the search was about to …

Fake Cell Phone Tower Used by Police for Warrantless Tracking Did you know your cell phone can be tracked by the government, even when you’re not using it? Using a device called a Stingray, which acts like a fake cell phone tower, police can search large areas for a specific cell phone signal. It’s also able to gather data from other phones in the area. That violates the Fourth Amendment, say the Electronic Frontier Foundation and ACLU. Find Out More… …