On Monday, January 7, 2002, at 08:52 PM, Declan McCullagh wrote:
On Mon, Jan 07, 2002 at 04:46:02PM -0800, Tim May wrote:
Setting a trap gun to blow away anyone who inserts a floppy (or hooks up a cable) to a machine he has not been given access to is morally permissable.
Except when the local firefighters show up when your house is on fire, you're away, and the gun is rigged...
As the Mafia case shows, Big Brother and his courts no longer even think a warrant is needed.
Actually, the warrant in the Scarfo case was signed by a federal magistrate judge. That doesn't mean it's constitutional, but the judge had exactly this in mind.
I meant a wiretap warrant, as you talked about in your article. A "search warrant," duly presented to the resident and defining the general scope of the search, is substantially different from a wiretap order or secret search warrant. But such secret or extra-warrant search orders are part of the public lore, hence part of the current law. In "The Sopranos," Tony's entire house is wired for sound. In "Law and Order: Criminal Something or Other," a completely warrantless keystroke logger is inserted in a witnesses computer. I think those who violate the C. should be killed. --Tim May
--Tim May "They played all kinds of games, kept the House in session all night, and it was a very complicated bill. Maybe a handful of staffers actually read it, but the bill definitely was not available to members before the vote." --Rep. Ron Paul, TX, on how few Congresscritters saw the USA-PATRIOT Bill before voting overwhelmingly to impose a police state