Can the sausage making ever keep up with all our electronic gadgets?
Today’s policy post from the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) is an interesting study in contrasts as the slow wheels of democratic justice struggle to come to terms with a pace of change hardly imaginable to the authors of our government.
In two independent rulings, two federal appeals courts reached rather different conclusions regarding questions of right to privacy in the context of e-mail. I’ll let you go to their nice briefing for the details and jump to the final paragraph:
At a broader level, both of these cases highlight the disjointed nature of current law as it relates to electronic privacy and the application of Fourth Amendment protections in the digital world. Put simply, the law has not kept pace with the evolution of Internet technology. Judges and lawmakers must address these concerns and consider approaches to revitalize the Fourth Amendment in the face of technological change.
Here, here, and well said. How in the world would we make that a significant campaign issue in the upcoming election, however?
Tags: technology
July 26th, 2007 at 17:41
As long as ACLU remains a four letter word in Washington, DC and supporting civil liberties is unpatriotic, there isn’t much hope for the Fourth Amdendment, or the Fifth, or the First, or any of the first 10, except the Second (of course).