Reason.com: The Fourth Amendment and the Fruit of the Poisonous Tree (New at Reason)

Reason.com: The Fourth Amendment and the Fruit of the Poisonous Tree (New at Reason) by Reason staff:

The USA Freedom Act provides cover for unconstitutional searches of citizens.

The Fourth Amendment was eloquently described by Justice Louis Brandeis as “the right to be let alone — the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.”

Brandeis’ famous statement was made as a dissent in a case which upheld a conviction based on wiretapping, but eventually the Supreme Court came around to his side and ruled that the government required a warrant to obtain information from private phone conversations.

But, Andrew Napolitano writes, “the super-secret court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), reaffirmed by Congress last year under the so-called USA Freedom Act” undermines the right to be let alone: ….