(US Supreme) Court Case Asks if ‘Big Brother’ Is Spelled GPS

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The precedent is novel. More precisely, the precedent is a novel.

In a series of rulings on the use of satellites and cellphones to track criminal suspects, judges around the country have been citing George Orwell’s “1984” to sound an alarm. They say the Fourth Amendment’s promise of protection from government invasion of privacy is in danger of being replaced by the futuristic surveillance state Orwell described.

In April, Judge Diane P. Wood of the federal appeals court in Chicago wrote that surveillance using global positioning system devices would “make the system that George Orwell depicted in his famous novel, ‘1984,’ seem clumsy.” In a similar case last year, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the federal appeals court in San Francisco wrote that “1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it’s here at last.”

Last month, Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn turned down a government request for 113 days of location data from cellphone towers, citing “Orwellian intrusion” and saying the courts must “begin to address whether revolutionary changes in technology require changes to existing Fourth Amendment doctrine.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/us/11gps.html

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. It also becomes more interesting if you choose to block or disable said technology

Its not all that hard to do, it is the detection that is harder.

In the case of cell phones, its easy to defeat, but you have to give up the convenience of instant comms.

[Canuckistanian]

2. They still mention the 4th Amendment in court cases?

How quaint.

[orpupilofnature57]

3. The same as they do with Corporations vs Human beings ,NWO

[Cassandra]

4. Idiot Cliff May...

was complaining about GPS this morning on C-Span WJ.

[alp227]

5. That name sounds familiar. He's been on Thom Hartmann before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcSyAtW1_3A

(I think I confused him with Cliff Schecter, a progressive activist and regular on TH. And people from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies have been on TH regularly.)

[JohnnyRingo]

6. I don't think it's Orwellian because it shoud be easy to get off the GPS grid

The problem is, people are unwilling to give up the devices that steal their liberties. In that regard, I think Huxley had it right as outlined below:

[tomg]

7. Absolutely spot on. Mind if I use it in class?

Orwell is one of my intellectual heroes, but Huxley got it right for our culture.

[JohnnyRingo]

9. I don't own it

I just posted it.
A lot of truth in there, huh?

[tomg]

10. You got it. . Thanks. nt

[tomg]

8. Absolutely spot on. Mind if I use it in class?

Orwell is one of my intellectual heroes, but Huxley got it right for our culture.

[napoleon_in_rags]

12. Its not that simple though.

What this is about is police tracking suspects. I heard a section of this being debated in WA, and arguments about searches of vehicles were being referenced, ideas like that its okay to search without warrant when you can see in windows by precedent so... ( I don't understand legal stuff) but its about more and more pervasive localization tech you can't get away from.

[napoleon_in_rags]

11. There is no way back here. The question is how do we move forward with the spirit of the founders.

I'm a bit of a science nerd, and I can tell you one thing you can take to the bank: Localization and observation tech is just going to get better, and better, and better. I'm seeing it now. So we have to change the equation. 1984 is about a totalitarian state exploiting an information asymmetry: Big Brother is watching you, but you aren't watching back. Furthermore, you're not even watching yourself. The latter is the FIRST thing to take on: An individual who contributes information to an information gathering system should have the RIGHT to all the information gathered on him or her. The individual should be able to see all the data he is putting out there, and all correlations thereof. (additional data that could be deduced by cross correlating data gathered by different sources.)

What we need is a Bill of Rights for the information age that will preserve freedoms with this tech in the world, and that means eradicating the asymmetries. Its a big change but it can be done I believe, from stuff put out online down to things like security cams.

[defendandprotect]

13. Jack Ruby: "A whole new form of government is going to take over this country" --

as he related it to SC Justice Earl Warren and asked for protection so he

could tell the truth of the coup on JFK --


"JFK" by Oliver Stone is playing all night tonight on AMC --