Randolph Holhut in the Windham County Commons reports that U.S. Representative Peter Welch, of Vermont, is cosponsoring a bill which would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant before using a person’s GPS information.
Because it’s easier than trailing someone in person and court approval is unnecessary, the FBI now commonly attaches GPS trackers to people’s cars. According to Wired, “The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled last year that using a GPS tracker was no different than physically trailing a suspect in public, and that such surveillance was not protected by the Fourth Amendment, even if agents placed the device on a suspect’s car while it was parked in his driveway.” (A dissenting judge argued that it was “straight out of George Orwell’s novel 1984”.) The devices have been found on the cars of environmental activists and college students.
an abandoned GPS tracker, courtesy of John Snyder and Wired.com
(One federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., however, ruled that the tracking is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy. The Obama administration, no friend of civil liberties, has asked the Supreme Court to overturn the decision.)
The bill, the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act, would change this. It would also prevent companies, such as cell phone service providers, from sharing GPS data without prior consent. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Representative Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced it last month. (Wired has more.)
This video of Beau’s arrest for wearing a hat in court (charged with direct criminal contempt) and the subsequent “right of alocution” hearing shows some important things about the NH liberty movement today. Continue reading after the video for analysis:
The good news: The numbers of liberty-oriented people moving to and getting active in NH are growing, and those willing to take a risk are increasing. There is strength in numbers, and the more of us there are that are willing to laugh at the aggressors as well as noncooperate and disobey, the more they lose their precious legitimacy and control. The robed man in this video, Edward Burke, desperately attempts to flex his power by attempting to clear the courtroom.
The bad news: Burke is largely successful at clearing the court. (more…)
Police and federal agents are not your friends. When they talk with you, everything you say is being committed to their memory to be used against you in court, should they decide to arrest you for some arbitrary reason. Lying to them can also get you in significant trouble as it is always illegal to lie in federal jurisdiction and frequently illegal in state jurisdiction.
If you don’t believe me… just ask Martha Stewart. As rich and influential as she is, it is too bad she didn’t know to just keep her mouth shut. Had she not spoken with federal investigators she may have never been convicted of anything. This is why I frequently advise people that when they interact with government agents that the best thing they can do is always remain silent.
Back in March I wrote about how I practice the art of not answering prying questions from federal agents when returning to the United States. Some may perceive this as me purposefully being disrespectful or looking for trouble. It is not intended to be either of those things. My refusal to answer questions is an attempt to protect myself and my privacy.
Two days ago I visited Nogales, Mexico. When I returned I was arrested, handcuffed, and thrown in a cage by a US Customs Agent. It was my first time ever being arrested. I was released without charges.
Why would I be released from federal custody without any charges?
I’m sick to my stomach and upset. Mostly at myself because I am not able to risk violating (due to being out on at least two bails) this absurd new ban on all recording devices at the Cheshire “superior” courthouse.
Yes, it’s another unsigned order, this time from the top of the circuit and superior courts (this applies to all courts in Keene, and only Keene).
Freedom of the press and freedom of speech is a huge joke. The court bailiffs this morning were gloating and reveling in their new power to control activists.
Anyone bringing a recording device into the court may be caged for “contempt of court”, which is a “power” of the robed man to lock you in a cage for a possibly indefinite period of time. Apparently this is all justified because they feel “intimidated”.
You read that right. Media are being threatened with a cage in the so-called land of the free. It’s only a matter of time now before some brave reporter steps up to violate this outrageous ban.
On today’s Planet Money, we travel to a place where people are trying to live without government interference. A place where you can use bits of silver to buy uninspected bacon. A place where a 9-year-old will sell you alcohol.
It’s the 2011 Porcupine Freedom Festival, known to its friends as PorcFest. It’s the summer festival for people who think we should return to the gold standard and abolish the IRS.
This is not the same piece we posted before, which was only a couple of minutes. 
