Roger Schlafly wrote:
Posted online news accounts of the McCain-Kerrey bill have implied that the a court order is required under the bill to get keys. [AP, 07/09/1997] As with wiretaps, authorities would have to obtain court orders to make the keys available for law enforcement. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ [Wired, 11.Jul.97] Law enforcement could then access that copy of your key through a court order. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I find this distressing, because I have read the bill, and a court order is most emphatically NOT required. Only a form specified by J. Reno.
Most people don't realize that many of the so-called protections that are in place to guard our constitutional rights and our privacy only apply to _use_ of the material in an _official_ proceeding, such as a trial or hearing. Government, private agencies and corporations daily exchange all manner of supposedly private information, often using court orders only to _officially_ get portions of what they already had. It is no accident that LEA's often get court orders asking only for access to certain incriminating information (since they've already done the "fishing"). This is a tricky point in the bill, but notice that:
(1) Court orders are not required for wiretaps in the US. While it may be true that court orders are used most of the time when wiretap evidence is used in a criminal trial, there are a number of exceptions.
Also, many of the wiretaps have already been in place when the court orders are applied for. "Redating" of wiretap records is a common and sophisticated part of LEA practice. NSA has a database that is used to cull out wiretap references which are out of sync with the purported time-stamp on records. It lists all worldwide social and religious time-sequence indentifiers such as Easter, Hannuka, the running of the bulls, sports contests and playoffs, etc.
(2) There is no restriction in the bill to getting keys to decipher communications covered by the wiretap Under S.909, if the cops can get access to the data, then they can get the keys without any court order.
Which they no doubt will do and apply for the court order after they have found what they want. This will be even more effective than their voice-wiretap methods have been because their will be no need to redate the information they claim as being found after getting the court order since files, unlike voices, linger.
(4) In S.909, all of the requirements on law enforcement officials can be lifted by executive order.
Which means it can be done _retroactively_ with a nod, a wink, and a few simple strokes of a pen. S.909 quite simply butt-fucks the Constitution and the citizenry. The shameless criminals on Capitol Hill of Manure no longer even seriously pretend to be in the least concerned with Constitutional issues. They think (and may be right) that they only have to chant the "National Security" mantra a couple of times to absolve all of their sins against the Constitution. TruthMonger