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."

http://videos.webpronews.com/2007/06/26/fourth-amendment-prevails

This video tells of Enzyme peddler Steven Warshak (not to be confused with Warshak the Watchmen character), and how he won his case again the Federal Trade for infringing on his 4th amendment right to privacy. In the video it tells that the government went through his emails (without his permission) and didn’t tell him about it until a year later. Then proceeded to sure them.

This is a landmark case because it no only did they not obtain a search warrant but because the failed to see email as “…papers, and effects…”. Which his hard to tell with new technology such as social networking cites and blogs. The judge sided with Warshak that email fell on the same lines of privacy as a phone would.

Personally I believe that by law it is protected by the 4th amendment, but whether I think it should be is another thing. Emails in my mind do not fall on the same lines because of the fact that it is on the internet. Something used to make everything viral and public. Would it have been the same thing if it was Facebook private messages? Both are password connected, and sent from one person to another. The only difference is that there is no privacy tagged onto the name Facebook. People see email as a private thing when really it isn’t.


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