Land of the Who?

For the benefit of those who, like me, went to public schools, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution are called the Bill of Rights, and are supposed to be the freedoms available to you (if you are of the right race, gender, and socio-economic class). The idea at the time was that these are a partial list- the minimums or guidelines if you will. That somehow shifted recently in the view of the Supreme Court that if something wasn't explicitly stated, it wasn't a right, but that's a rant for another day.

Today, I'll focus solely on the Fourth Amendment, also known as "protection from unlawful search and siezure". It reads:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

No let that soak in for a moment. Got it? Okay, great. Now have a look at this:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. federal agents have been given new powers to seize travelers' laptops and other electronic devices at the border and hold them for unspecified periods the Washington Post reported on Friday.

Under recently disclosed Department of Homeland Security policies, such seizures may be carried out without suspicion of wrongdoing, the newspaper said, quoting policies issued on July 16 by two DHS agencies.

Agents are empowered to share the contents of seized computers with other agencies and private entities for data decryption and other reasons, the newspaper said.

DHS officials said the policies applied to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens, and were needed to prevent terrorism.

The measures have long been in place but were only disclosed in July, under pressure from civil liberties and business travel groups acting on reports that increasing numbers of international travelers had had their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices removed and examined.

The policies cover hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes -- as well as books, pamphlets and other written materials, the report said.

The policies require federal agents to take measures to protect business information and attorney-client privileged material. They stipulate that any copies of the data must be destroyed when a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information.

(Reporting by Paul Eckert, editing by Alan Elsner)

I'm so sick of this fucking place.