4th Amendment

479 – When the FBI Knocks

Imagine being awakened from a sound sleep by a group of armed men bashing in your door. Come to find out, it’s the FBI. Oh yeah, and they have the wrong house. After the trauma, not to mention the damage to your house, at the very least you can sue for a redress of these grievances, right? That is the question before the Supreme Court in the case Martin v. United States.

470 – Automatic License Plate Readers

There will always be tension between our desire for privacy and safety. We’re all for privacy, until we find that an invasion of said privacy could have stopped some terrible event. But are we willing to trade our privacy for safety?

“They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.”
— Benjamin Franklin

In the case of SCHOLL and BEDNARZ v. Illinois State Police the privacy question revolves around automatic license place readers (ALPRs) and what makes a search reasonable.