Title: Warrentless Mail searches
Description: Allowed?
Deltasix - January 5, 2007 10:03 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
Warrantless mail searches may be allowed
Civil libertarians alarmed; White House says stance is no change in policy
NBC News and news services
Updated: 1:53 p.m. ET Jan 5, 2007
WASHINGTON - A statement attached to postal legislation by President Bush last month may have opened the way for the government to open mail without a warrant.
The White House denies any change in policy, but civil libertarians are alarmed, saying the government has never publicly claimed that power before.
Federal law has long required a search warrant to open first class mail unless postal inspectors suspect it contains something dangerous, like a bomb or a hazardous chemical, reports NBC News' Pete Williams.
But in signing a postal bill just before Christmas, President Bush said federal law also gives the government authority to open the mail "for foreign intelligence collection."
White House spokesman Tony Snow said that's nothing new. All this is saying is that there are provisions at law for in exigent circumstances for such inspections. It has been thus. This is not a change in law, this is not new.
"What the signing statement indicates is what present law allows, in making it clear what the provisions are," Snow said Thursday in his daily briefing.
But members of Congress Republicans and Democrats alike say that's not what they intended the law to do. And they call it another example of a president claiming new legal authority while signing a bill into law.
I was really surprised. There was absolutely nothing in the Postal Reform bill that in any way diminished or changed the privacy protections for domestic sealed mail, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said.
The law requires government agents to get warrants to open first-class letters.
But when Bush signed the Postal Reform act, he added a statement saying that his administration would construe that provision in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances. ... |
Spurius - January 6, 2007 02:43 AM (GMT)
Doesn't bother me. It only makes me feel safer. It's not like they're going to be reading any of your personal letters, it's only to cover their ass incase they need to open one in order to find a bomb or something.
Deltasix - January 6, 2007 03:15 AM (GMT)
Yeah, its not like you're actually using your civil rights, right?
How far you willing to let that go? Tapping your phone lines? Hey, if its for your safety, its alright, right? Or what if they put cameras right outside your home, for your "safety?"
It goes downhill way too fast. If they get charged with mail fraud or the like because they are trying to get a bomb, nobody is going to get in trouble. Its just another way to extend the reach of the gov't. Not a good thing.
RancerDS - January 6, 2007 09:42 AM (GMT)
While this may indeed be a march down the horrid road of trampling upon civil rights... anyone realize how many pieces of mail there are?? Even if you narrow it down to non-advertisement fliers and the usual promotional garbage, most postal employees or anyone else will have time to sit there and comb through that mail.
Not sure that I feel safer one way or the other. By the time they did find an important piece of mail, they'd already have a suspected something or other in mind, which means they are probably reactive to an event.
In comparison, it's hard to see this as being allowed across the carrier industry. UPS, RPS, FedEx and Airborne aren't going to be granted rights for such invasions without the required warrants. So I guess the smart terrorists or foreign nationals that are conducting suspicious activities will simply use those.
Deltasix - January 15, 2007 02:43 AM (GMT)
It wouldn't be going through all the mail, just going through the mail of those who are "suspects." If it works anything like the screenings in airports or the no-fly list, then its people like Cat Stevens, Al Gore, and Edward Kennedy, along with a few misc brown people.
Morpheus - January 15, 2007 04:20 AM (GMT)
It could slow down the mail service for people on the target list, which I suppose is OK...unless you're wrongly on the target list.
*added in edit: C'mon, who'd use mail to communicate terror plans anyway?