Whatever you say, Kyle...

Judge to Police: Feel Free to Invade Citizens' Property Without Warrant, Plant Cameras

In a closely watched case, the federal judge ruled that the Constitutional rights of two defendants — Manuel Mendoza and Marco Magana of Green Bay, WI — were not violated when federal agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) invaded their private property without warrant to plant wireless surveillance cameras.  The judge also ruled that the collected evidence could be used against the defendants.

The judge argued that the 22-acre property’s numerous “no trespassing” signs did not apply to federal agents — with or without warrant.

Man Faces up to 15 Years in Prison for Facebook Protest Against U.S. Gov't

Marine Also Imprisoned Without Trial

The case echoes the story of U.S. Marine Brandon Raub.  After honorably serving his country on tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. Raub, 26, had grown disillusioned with the U.S. federal government, and like Mr. Michael took to posting vague, frustrated, incendiary commentaries to Facebook.  

Those posts led to local authorities and federal agents in Chesterfield, Virginia detaining Mr. Raub and then exploiting the state’s involuntary commitment laws to label the protester as “mentally ill”, effectively imprisoning him indefinitely and without trial in a state-run veteran’s hospital.

NDAA: The Biggest Election Issue No One's Talking About

You don’t have to live alone in the woods, reading issues of Guns and Ammo and co-writing your manifesto with beard lice, to be terrified about the state of basic freedoms in America today. Given the counterterrorism provisions in the fairly recent National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA), we currently live in a country where the government can pick up American citizens and detain them indefinitely without access to a lawyer or even a criminal trial. That means locked up forever without even the basic protections we afford to rapists and murderers.

Serious Revolt Is the Only Option People Have Left

The determining factor in global corporate production is now poverty. The poorer the worker and the poorer the nation, the greater the competitive advantage. With access to vast pools of desperate, impoverished workers eager for scraps, unions and working conditions no longer impede the quest for larger and larger profits. And when the corporations do not need these workers they are cast aside. Those who are economically broken usually cease to be concerned with civic virtues. They will, history has demonstrated, serve any system, no matter how evil, and do anything for a pitiful salary, a chance for job security and the protection of their families. There will, as the situation worsens, also be those who attempt to rebel. I certainly intend to join them. But the state can rely on a huge number of people who, for work and meager benefits, will transform themselves into willing executioners.

Goodbye, Liberty! 10 Ways Americans Are No Longer Free

Our most fundamental rights, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, are under assault. But the adversary is Big Wealth, not Big Government as conservatives like to claim.

How a drug mule named "Big Foot" helped create terrible GPS search law

Shoddy legal reasoning was used in a decision that bucks the Fourth Amendment.

In the summer of 2006, agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency used GPS tracking technology to locate drug courier Melvin Skinner’s prepaid phone, ultimately seizing more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana from Skinner’s mobile home. The judges on the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit then apparently smoked all of it before issuing their ruling in United States v. Skinner this week, because the opinion approving DEA’s use of GPS technology in this case is easily one of the most muddled examples of legal reasoning I’ve ever encountered—a surreal potpourri of factual misunderstandings, inapt analogies, sloppy and selective appeals to precedent, and logical leaps worthy of Nijinsky.

(Source: Ars Technica)

Drone Killings, Cyber Attacks, War on Whistleblowers: Does Obama Think He Is Above the Law?

The United States rains Hellfire missiles down on its enemies, with the president alone sitting in judgment of who will live and who will die by his hand.

NY State Senator Proposes Banning Anonymous Free Speech on the Net

All users posting to websites would have to post their real name and address, non-compliant posts would be axed

Judge Blocks Controversial NDAA, ruling it Unconstitutional

catmartini:

Success! I’m so glad Occupy issues are being brought to court — it’s one of the main ways laws get changed in the U.S. — And considering how ineffective our politicians are, it may be our only hope. 

#A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction to block the so-called “Homeland Battlefield” provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act that would allow the military to indefinitely detain anyone it accuses of knowingly or unknowingly supporting terrorism, ruling it unconstitutional. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges filed the suit along with Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir, Occupy London organizer Kai Wargalla, and Alexa O’Brien, an organizer for U.S. Day of Rage. They call themselves the Freedom Seven.

#RT points out that a repeal of the Homeland Battlefield provision would only protect American citizens from arbitrary arrest; citizens the world over would still face indefinite detention.

#The day after the injunction was issued, the House voted down an amendment to the NDAA that would have blocked the Homeland Battlefield provisions

http://occupiedmedia.us/2012/05/occupied-reports-from-the-front-lines-11/

More from the Los Angeles Times:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/environment/la-me-gs-national-defense-authorization-ruling-20120518,0,2046039.story

Court blocks Illinois law used to charge those who video police officers

“The act of making an audio or audiovisual recording is necessarily included within the First Amendment’s guarantee of speech and press rights as a corollary of the right to disseminate the resulting recording,” wrote the two-judge majority in a Tuesday decision.

(Source: Ars Technica)

Protesters Beware: U.S. Supreme Court Expands Invasive Strip-Searches

Police Are Using Phone Tracking as a Routine Tool

 Law enforcement tracking of cellphones, once the province mainly of federal agents, has become a powerful and widely used surveillance tool for local police officials, with hundreds of departments, large and small, often using it aggressively with little or no court oversight, documents show.

Exposed: Massive New Spy Center Built to Track Your Emails and Phone Calls

An investigative reporter reveals that the NSA has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls.

FBI breaching the Constitution in the name of national security

A report in Wired has exposed the shady way in which the FBI is using National Security Letters (NSL) and 2001’s Patriot Act to spy on American citizens…