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Obama admin policy of seizing phones/computers from citizens @ border for any reason

BobStackFan4Life

BobStackFan4Life

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Was just upheld by a judge. Yay Team Obama, another victory for America and freedom! :thumbsup:
A federal judge today upheld a President Barack Obama administration policy allowing authorities along the U.S. border to seize and search laptops, smartphones and other electronic devices for any reason...
the government contends the Fourth-Amendment-Free Zone stretches 100 miles inland from the nation’s actual border.
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At an Amtrak inspection point, he showed his U.S. passport to an agent. He was ordered to move to the cafe car, where they removed his laptop from his luggage and “ordered Mr. Abidor to enter his password,” according to the lawsuit.

Agents asked him about pictures they found on his laptop, which included Hamas and Hezbollah rallies. He explained to the agent that he was earning a doctoral degree in the modern history of Shiites in Lebanon.

He was handcuffed and then jailed for three hours while the authorities looked through his computer, according to the suit. Numerous agents questioned him, the suit says.

They released him and kept his laptop, until his lawyer complained.
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The President George W. Bush administration first announced the suspicionless, electronics search rules in 2008. The Obama administration followed up with virtually the same rules a year later.
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The ACLU said it was mulling an appeal.

“We’re disappointed in today’s decision, which allows the government to conduct intrusive searches of Americans’ laptops and other electronics at the border without any suspicion that those devices contain evidence of wrongdoing,” said Catherine Crump, the American Civil Liberties Union attorney who argued the case in July 2011. “Suspicionless searches of devices containing vast amounts of personal information cannot meet the standard set by the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. Unfortunately, these searches are part of a broader pattern of aggressive government surveillance that collects information on too many innocent people, under lax standards, and without adequate oversight.”
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http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/12/gadget-border-searches-2/
 
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It was totally cool when the Bush administration implemented it though...

"The President George W. Bush administration first announced the suspicionless, electronics search rules in 2008. The Obama administration followed up with virtually the same rules a year later. "

And it sucks that the whole separation of powers thing appears to still be functional...
 
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ONW said:
It was totally cool when the Bush administration implemented it though...

"The President George W. Bush administration first announced the suspicionless, electronics search rules in 2008. The Obama administration followed up with virtually the same rules a year later. "
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Did you really think it was cool back then? I thought it was an outrageous abuse of power and my opinion hasn't changed.
 
No, but you just insinuated that the Obama administration was the prime mover of this practice.
 
ONW said:
No, but you just insinuated that the Obama administration was the prime mover of this practice.
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"The Obama administration followed up with virtually the same rules a year later."

To try and excuse what the Obama admin is doing because Bush did it is not credible IMO.
 
ONW said:
No, but you just insinuated that the Obama administration was the prime mover of this practice.
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Obama has been the President for almost 6 years.

"But, but the Big Bad Republican before him did it" excuse doesn't work anymore liberals

The sooner you realize that they're all pieces of shit narcissists, the better.
 
I'm not excusing him for continuing it, but to qualify it as the Obama administration's evil policy is a bit disingenuous.
 
Yeah and its been 6 years man. Obama has had a Kindergarten's lifetime to reverse this policy. But he didn't.

He's a NeoLib and/or a puppet. Accept it.
 
ONW didn't try to justify it. What he posted was the title of the thread was was disingenuous. It makes it look like this was an Obama originated program which it isn't.

BSF and Racer were totally silent when W was doing it. Hmmmmmm....
 
It apparently is the policy of the Obama administration. It was the policy of the Bush administration when Bush was in office. In both cases it is an egregious usurpation of basic freedoms.
 
This policy is so, so bad. Security theater is bad enough, but when our 4th amendment rights are absolutely ignored in the pursuit of security theater it's just shameful.
 
If I misremembered you saying my mistake.

You certainly didn't start dozens of threads every month about it.
 
Deacon923 said:
This policy is so, so bad. Security theater is bad enough, but when our 4th amendment rights are absolutely ignored in the pursuit of security theater it's just shameful.
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I like how it's also applicable to people living 100 miles inland from the border. Wonder how they came up with that number.
 
RJKarl said:
If I misremembered you saying my mistake.

You certainly didn't start dozens of threads every month about it.
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And not a peep out of you on this thread condemning Obama for it. Guess that means you LOVED it when Bush was trampling all over people's rights.
 
That number seems very arbitrary and needs to be challenged. I thought we normally only claimed about 3-5 miles of territorial waters as ours.
 
BobStackFan4Life said:
And not a peep out of you on this thread condemning Obama for it. Guess that means you LOVED it when Bush was trampling all over people's rights.
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Why do you lie?

I have said many times the policies and laws need to be changed so that no one can go this far. I've also said multiple times there needs to be oversight.
 
RJKarl said:
If I misremembered you saying my mistake.

You certainly didn't start dozens of threads every month about it.
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LOL at the idea that I don't care about something because RJ doesn't remember me posting about it on a message board 5-6 years ago. Never mind that Bush was a known quantity by 2008 while Obama was the President who came in saying he was going to be super open and reverse all of the freedom infringing policies the Bush admin instituted. If we hire someone worse than Buzz to replace Buzz, I wouldn't expect the complaints to go down...

Hell, it's exactly the bullshit that Bush pulled, and that Obama has made his own and actually expanded, that has made me a Libertarian today...i.e. I cared enough about it that I left a political party and spent a lot of time refining/reshaping my views on matters of freedom and civil rights. Shit changes in 6 years (well, save for the fact that you're still a partisan hack who changes his argument based on whether there's an R or D behind someone's name).
 
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RJKarl said:
Why do you lie?

I have said many times the policies and laws need to be changed so that no one can go this far. I've also said multiple times there needs to be oversight.
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Yeah, BUT WHAT IF GOOGLE SELLS THE INFORMATION TO THE NSA?!?!?!?!
 
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