Justice Department, Appeals Court argue warrantless wiretap

Do you think that you a right to privacy when it comes to the location of your cell phone? The Holder Justice Department say you don’t. A Justice Department attorney told the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that there is “no Constitutional bar” to the government accessing your cell phone’s location through your cell phone company’s records.

Should law enforcement be permitted to track our cell phones? Certainly, but they should only do if they have probable cause.

From Declan McCullagh’s cnet news article (which contains excerpts from the court transcript):

Judge Dolores Sloviter sharply questioned Eckenwiler, saying that location data can reveal whether people “have been at a protest, or at a meeting, or at a political meeting” and that rogue governments could misuse that information.

And our Constitution is there to protect us against “rogue governments.” While we are nowhere near Iran’s level of crackdown on political opponents and protesters, we are certainly not headed in a good direction with our current leadership. If the Justice Department can prevent crime while preserving our rights, by all means they should do so. But those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.