Come Back With a Warrant

It seems that the Department of Justice (DOJ) [sic] decided a while back that there shouldn't be a Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and its prosecutors opt to pretend it didn't exist, except they've backed off for the moment. I have been following a little-known fight in federal court in Colorado. It is all about Yahoo! refusing to turn over access to email accounts when there isn't a search warrant based on probable cause (what the Fourth Amendment is all about). In other words, come back with a warrant!

Yahoo! has been around for a long time, and I'm not clear on why the DOJ prosecutors thought they could run roughshod over the US Constitution. Trust me on this – Yahoo! is not AT&T and wasn't going down without a fight. Briefs were filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Google, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Progress and Freedom Foundation. There is a new group in which the aforementioned are members: The Digital Due Process Coalition. Because AT&T is a member, I'm not so sure about it though.

Read the full story on CNET.

The important part here is that the DOJ backed away, but this can't be interpreted as an overall win; only a win for the moment. It would serve you well to keep an eye on this situation. It is something that I never expected from the Obama administration, though that is not saying that the McCain/Palin team wouldn't have done worse, if they'd won.

I can say that as a supporter, voter, and campaign worker for the Barack Obama campaign I am seriously disappointed that he allowed the DOJ dogs to get as far as they did. It seems that it was only adverse publicity in the situation that has held them in check for now.