Wes Vernon
Friday, June 15, 2001

That has prompted House Majority Leader Dick Armey to fire off a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft urging that the court be obeyed and that your privacy be protected.

Zeroing in on the FBI’s "Carnivore” program, the high court said devices that allow police technology to erode the privacy guaranteed in the Fourth Amendment is unconstitutional.

"Where ... the government uses a device that is not in general public use, to explore details of a private home that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion, the surveillance is a Fourth Amendment ‘search,’ and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant,” the justices declared.

As Armey sees it, that would describe Carnivore, which has been backed by some law enforcement authorities. So he has asked Ashcroft, as the nation’s top law enforcement officer, to see to it that the court’s Monday decision is enforced.

The House leader recalls that Ashcroft’s predecessor, Janet Reno, reluctantly undertook a review of "Carnivore” last year. It went nowhere because the team selected for the review had clear political ties to the Clinton regime. Thus, its objectivity was called into question. That, in turn, persuaded most major universities not to participate.

Armey believes Ashcroft will take a much more "constructive” approach to the issue.

Although the FBI is making a good-faith effort to fight crime in the most efficient way possible, in Armey’s opinion, efficiency is not the issue here. The Founders, he says, "quite clearly decided to sacrifice that kind of efficiency for the sake of protecting citizens from the danger of an overly intrusive government.”

Therefore, Armey asked the attorney general to "consider the constitutional questions Carnivore has raised” and respond accordingly.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Privacy
A product that might interest you:
Shop NewsMax.com`s store for the best deals on books, tapes, videos and more!