Truly remarkable how the establishment views the citizenry. They quite clearly and openly view themselves as having full ownership of our lives, our work and our privacy. Actually, they do not think we deserve to have privacy at all. This is the exact mindset of all tyrannical regimes throughout human history, which is precisely why the founders made sure to include the 4th Amendment in the Constitution of these United States. For those of you that need a reminder.
The 4th Amendment:
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.
NEW YORK — IRS documents released Wednesday suggest that the tax collection agency believes it can read American citizens’ emails without a warrant.
The files were released to the American Civil Liberties Union under a Freedom of Information Act request. The organization is working to determine just how broadly federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI or the IRS’ Criminal Tax Division interpret their authority to snoop through inboxes.
The idea of IRS agents poking through your email account might sound at the very least creepy, and maybe unconstitutional. But the IRS does have a legal leg to stand on: the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 allows government agencies to in many cases obtain emails older than 180 days without a warrant.
In 1986 they decided this? Who used email in 1986?
That’s why an internal 2009 IRS document claimed that “the government may obtain the contents of electronic communication that has been in storage for more than 180 days” without a warrant.
Another 2009 file, the IRS Criminal Tax Division’s “Search Warrant Handbook,” showed that the division’s general counsel believed “the Fourth Amendment does not protect communications held in electronic storage, such as email messages stored on a server, because internet users do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
What kind of crazy logic is that. Says who?
Members of Congress recently renewed their efforts to change the 1986 email privacy law to require a warrant. But until then, the ACLU would like the IRS to act on its own and always use a warrant.
I’m sorry, but yes I do expect privacy when I send and email based on the Constitution and human decency, although I know the intelligence agencies do not respect those things. I can’t remember the last time I decided to cc: NSA; CIA; IRS on my emails. Do you?
The good news is that there is bipartisan legislation being brought forth to require warrants to read emails. It is called the ECPA legislation and you can read about it here.
Full article on the IRS here.
In Liberty,
Mike
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Actually, you last point gives me a good idea. Perhaps we should all start cc’ing these agencies and all of the individuals who support this sort of spying on all the email we send every day, especially the stupid, trivial, and mundane email. Let them deal with that.
Mike, I remember back when I was taking an intro to business law class… the instructor said that warrants don’t apply to cell phones because there is “no reasonable expectation of privacy”. And that was back in 2001 pre-Patriot Act! Clearly, there is a lot of work to be done reforming the law.
I like John’s idea, but I think the IRS imposes a penalty for any correspondence not related to the collection of tax. Maybe CC members of congress opposed to ECPA reform?
Really, they impose a penalty? I hadn’t heard that one. Crazy. Good idea though. At the very least we need to be contacting these leaders constantly.
Yeah, I came across that one a few months ago while doing my return. It’s technically called a “frivolous position”. See: http://www.irs.gov/irb/2010-17_IRB/ar13.html
I think it was initiated to deal with people who claim there is no law requiring the payment of income tax. It specifically talks about returns not emails, but they leave themselves this weasel clause at the end.
“Returns or submissions that contain positions not listed above, which on their face have no basis for validity in existing law, or which have been deemed frivolous in a published opinion of the United States Tax Court or other court of competent jurisdiction, may be determined to reflect a desire to delay or impede the administration of Federal tax laws and thereby subject to the $5,000 penalty.
The list of frivolous positions above will be periodically revised as required by section 6702(c).”
Could an email be construed as a submission to impede the administration of federal tax laws? Anyway, a $5k fine – how fascist is that!
These guys are just going for it all at this point. I think they’ve determined the public are total zombies.
Excellent catch, as usual MK. I concur they are “all in” at this point. And yes, the true psychopaths at the top view the public as zombies, cattle, what-have-you. But in the middle ranks of the control grid I sense there are many waking up to the rank corruption and rampant illegality, who are put off by it.
To tie together threads you mention here frequently, it is at those with misgivings, who are also coming to realize their role as human shields for the real creeps above them, that the administration’s campaign to crucify whistleblowers is targeted. “Don’t even think about going public about what you’ve seen!” is that message.