Court OKs warrantless use of hidden surveillance cameras

In latest case to test how technological developments alter Americans' privacy, federal court sides with Justice Department on police use of concealed surveillance cameras on private property.

Police are allowed in some circumstances to install hidden surveillance cameras on private property without obtaining a search warrant, a federal judge said yesterday. CNET has learned that U.S. District Judge William Griesbach ruled that it was reasonable for Drug Enforcement Administration agents to enter rural property without permission -- and without a warrant -- to install multiple "covert digital surveillance cameras" in hopes of uncovering evidence that 30 to 40 marijuana plants were being grown.

This is the latest case to highlight how advances in technology are causing the legal system to rethink how Americans' privacy rights are protected by law. In January, the Supreme Court rejected warrantless GPS tracking after previously rejecting warrantless thermal imaging, but it has not yet ruled on warrantless cell phone tracking or warrantless use of surveillance cameras placed on private property without permission. Read more >>

US Totalitarianism Loses Major Battle As Judge Permanently Blocks NDAA's Military Detention Provision

Back in January, Pulitzer winning journalist Chris Hedges sued President Obama and the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act, specifically challenging the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force or, the provision that authorizes military detention for people deemed to have "substantially supported" al Qaeda, the Taliban or "associated forces."

Hedges called the president's action allowing indefinite detention, which was signed into law with little opposition from either party "unforgivable, unconstitutional and exceedingly dangerous." He attacked point blank the civil rights farce that is the neverending "war on terror" conducted by both parties, targetting whom exactly is unclear, but certainly attaining ever more intense retaliation from foreigners such as the furious attacks against the US consulates in Egypt and Libya.

He asked  "why do U.S. citizens now need to be specifically singled out for military detention and denial of due process when under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force the president can apparently find the legal cover to serve as judge, jury and executioner to assassinate U.S. citizens." A few months later, in May, U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest ruled in favor of a temporary injunction blocking the enforcement of the authorization for military detention. Today, the war againt the true totalitarian terror won a decisive battle, when in a 112-opinion, Judge Forrest turned the temporary injunction, following an appeal by the totalitarian government from August 6, into a permanent one. Read more >>

FED Appeals Court Order to Identify Banks Receiving Loans

Image by r0b0r0b via Flickr

Bloomberg reports the Federal Reserve is appealing a judge’s order requiring the central bank to identify the financial institutions that benefited from its emergency loans, according to a lawyer representing Bloomberg LP.

The central bank refused to divulge details about the companies participating in its 10 remaining lending programs, saying that doing so might set off a run by depositors. The Fed had until today to seek a reversal of the Aug. 24 decision by Manhattan Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska, who ruled the Fed must release the identities, as well as disclose loan amounts and the assets put up as collateral.

Bloomberg LP, the New York-based company majority-owned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, filed suit against the Fed on Nov. 7 on behalf of its Bloomberg News unit. Scott Rose, a lawyer with New York-based Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, who represents Bloomberg, said the appeal is being filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York. The filing couldn’t be immediately confirmed in court records.