bill of rights

N.H. City Wants a “Tank” to Use Against Occupiers and Libertarians

"Police Chief John Duval now says that he doesn't actually believe the Free State Project or Occupy New Hampshire are domestic terror threats. 'I wish I would have worded things different in retrospect,' he says. 'I understand why their eyebrows are raised about that.' He says it was meant to refer to the 'unpredictable nature of unpredictable people who attach themselves to otherwise lawful situations.' Duval has no plans to issue a formal apology, but he has exchanged emails with Carla Gericke, president of the Free State Project, who is suing a police department for arresting her in 2011 for allegedly recording a police traffic stop." Continue reading →

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Indiana Appeals Court: Motorist Search Over Expired Tag Disallowed

"A motorist's bag cannot be searched because his car has an expired tag, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled last week. A divided three-judge panel overturned the conviction of Adam Miller, who was pulled over on January 9, 2011 for having an expired sticker on his license plate." Continue reading →

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Berkeley: What We Didn’t Know

"California investigative journalist Seth Rosenfeld adds significantly more in Subversives, which is based on some 300,000 pages of FBI documents, pried out of the resistant agency over more than two decades in a series of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits. I thought I knew all that was going on, but it turns out there was much that none of us knew, from the fact that the FBI secretly jammed the walkie-talkies of monitors directing a huge 1965 anti-war march I covered to the agency’s decade-long vendetta against Clark Kerr, the man who was first chancellor at Berkeley and then president of the University of California system." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin is crucial for the future of free speech, say experts

"First Amendment rights to free speech would make it a tough legal battle to prosecute WikiLeaks legally. However, government officials were able to target financial organizations such as Visa and PayPal, getting them to stop processing donations for the site. Timm also highlighted the importance that technologies like Bitmessage – the anonymous, encrypted messaging service built on the Bitcoin protocol – have in maintaining a free press. It eliminates the need for a third-party arbitrator when sending messages, enabling a zero-trust messaging system. It also hides the metadata surrounding such conversations, he added." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoin is crucial for the future of free speech, say experts

NEW Spying Scandal — Is This One the Last Straw?

"The DEA unit responsible for this program is a secret organization. It cannot be investigated by defense attorneys or called into court. Even the location of the Special Operations Division is classified. Now Your so-called 'representatives' promised you that the NSA only spies on those associated with foreign terrorists. They’ve insisted that there is no domestic aspect to this spying. You now know this to be untrue. It’s just one more lie. So let me ask you ... When will enough be enough ? At what point does our so-called government cease to be legitimate? At what point do we declare it to be a criminal entity?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNEW Spying Scandal — Is This One the Last Straw?

Taken: The Use And Abuse Of Civil Forfeiture

"Hundreds of state and federal laws authorize forfeiture for cockfighting, drag racing, basement gambling, endangered-fish poaching, securities fraud, and countless other misdeeds. In general, you needn’t be found guilty to have your assets claimed by law enforcement; in some states, suspicion on a par with 'probable cause' is sufficient. Nor must you be charged with a crime, or even be accused of one. Unlike criminal forfeiture, which requires that a person be convicted of an offense before his or her property is confiscated, civil forfeiture amounts to a lawsuit filed directly against a possession, regardless of its owner’s guilt or innocence." Continue reading →

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City Of Concord Confuses Concerned Residents With Domestic Terrorists

"A city that has had two homicides in the past decade needs an armored vehicle to protect itself against weapons of mass destruction, as well as chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive attacks, according to City Manager Thomas Aspell. In an application for Homeland Security federal funding of a $258,024 BEARCAT tank, Aspell named three groups as presenting 'active and daily challenges': Occupy New Hampshire, Free Staters, and Sovereign Citizens. This information was only uncovered after a public records request from the ACLU, focusing on the trend of the militarization of police forces in peaceful, small-town communities." Continue reading →

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Court sides with lovers of boobies: School cannot ban breast cancer awareness bracelets

"A full U.S. appeals court ruled Monday that a Pennsylvania school district could not ban 'I (heart) Boobies!' bracelets under the First Amendment. With help from the American Civil Liberties Union, two middle schoolers filed a free-speech lawsuit against the Easton Area School District in 2010 after being suspended for wearing the breast cancer awareness bracelets on the school’s Breast Cancer Awareness Day. School officials said the 'I (heart) Boobies!' slogan was lewd and distracted students. The school district also argued the bracelets violated the Title IX right to be free from sexual harassment." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCourt sides with lovers of boobies: School cannot ban breast cancer awareness bracelets

Justice Department to review DEA’s mass surveillance program

"The Justice Department is reviewing a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit that passes tips culled from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a large telephone database to field agents, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday. 'It’s my understanding… that the Department of Justice is looking at some of the issues raised in the story,' Carney said during his daily briefing at the White House on Monday. Carney referred reporters to a Justice Department spokesman, who confirmed that a review was under way, but declined further comment." Continue reading →

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DEA agents use NSA intercepts to investigate Americans

"The Drug Enforcement Agency has a secret unit that has been funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, and a massive database of phone records. The unit has been passing this data to law enforcement agencies across the nation and assists in launching criminal investigations against American citizens. Matthew Feeney, assistant editor for Reason 24/7, joins us with more on the findings and how this affects people's Fourth Amendment rights." Continue reading →

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