Monthly Archives: February 2015

Fourth Amendment Warrant Requirements – Video

Posted: February 3, 2015 at 6:53 pm


Fourth Amendment Warrant Requirements

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Fourth Amendment Warrant Requirements - Video

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Bill aimed at strengthening electronic data privacy rights advances at Capitol

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ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) -

If a bipartisan group of legislators have their way, Minnesotans will vote on an electronic data privacy constitutional amendment in 2016.

The amendment would require law enforcement agencies to get a warrant if they want to look through your emails or other electronic communications. (Read the bill for yourselfhere.)

By contrast, the current practice, as described to Fox 9 by Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the Minnesota ACLU, allows law enforcement to "take your cell phone, dump all your contents and picture and take all of it, and they can use it to build a case against you."

"But if they had Fourth Amendment protections, you would have the ability in some cases to block the government from downloading your data, and in other cases to ensure that the government does it properly," Samuelson adds.

One of the authors of the Senate version of the bill, Branden Petersen (R-Andover), says the reason he thinks a constitutional amendment is more appropriate in this case than simply passing a law has to do with the distinction between "guiding governing principles" and specific cases.

"Statutory-focused legislation is very specific in dealing with specific instances, and it's not open to interpretation in terms of what it means, whereas constitutional language is much more universal," Petersen says. "In the existing Fourth Amendment, you have the right [to be protected] from unreasonable searches and seizures of your effects in your home, but it doesn't say what 'effects' means in all its iterations. That's not how the constitution is written, and of course we interpret those principles in a whole host of different ways, as we've seen throughout our history."

Petersen argues it's time for the Fourth Amendment to be brought into the digital age.

"If we were all going to start Minnesota today and write the constitution, I think it's pretty clear that electronic data would be included," Petersen says. "And then, of course, all law flows downhill from the constitution, so if you're going to get it right in the first place, you should start with original governing principles and then create laws that are consistent with those principles. We don't start debating statute without a constitutional basis to do so, or at least we ought not do so."

"If the founders were here today, of course electronic data would be protected, because it tells every intimate detail of your life," Petersen adds.

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Bill aimed at strengthening electronic data privacy rights advances at Capitol

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George Noory: Why We Need Guns – Video

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George Noory: Why We Need Guns
Alex Jones talks with George Noory about the waterfront of issues facing this country as well as why the Second Amendment is crucial to the survival of liber. Alex Jones talks with George...

By: Gheorge Hagi

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George Noory: Why We Need Guns - Video

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Infowars Nightly News: Monday (5-12-14) – Video

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Infowars Nightly News: Monday (5-12-14)
On The May 10, 2014 Broadcast Of The Infowars Nightly News. David Knight Hosts. News Covered: 1776 Worldwide: The Second Amendment Comes to Mexico. DHS Emails Reveal U.S. May Have ...

By: Margot Bieniek

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Infowars Nightly News: Monday (5-12-14) - Video

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Giveaway Winners for February 1 2015 – Video

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Giveaway Winners for February 1 2015
Second Amendment Giveaways A brief film announcing the latest giveaway winners for our February 1 2015 giveaway. Prizes won during this giveaway: A Cheaper than Dirt gift card valued at $100.00, ...

By: Second Amendment Giveaways

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Giveaway Winners for February 1 2015 - Video

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Gun rights group sues D.C. over concealed carry laws

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A gun rights advocacy group filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the Districts newly enacted concealed carry laws on behalf of three men who were denied permits to carry firearms by the Metropolitan Police Department.

In the lawsuit filed in federal court, the Bellevue, Washington-based Second Amendment Foundation alleges that the laws requirement gun owners demonstrate a good reason to carry a concealed weapon is unconstitutional.

The city has set the bar so high that it relegates a fundamental civil right to the status of a heavily-regulated government privilege, said Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation. Law-abiding citizens who clear background checks and are allowed to have handguns in their homes are being unnecessarily burdened with the additional requirement of proving some special need.

D.C. lawmakers approved new concealed carry laws last year to comply with a ruling by U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. that overturned the Districts ban on the carrying of firearms in public. The legislation has come under fire from gun owners who said the laws were so restrictive they would not be able to qualify for permits.

Tuesdays lawsuit doubles efforts by gun owners to challenge regulations requiring them to prove they are under a specific threat in order to obtain an concealed carry permit.

Attorney Alan Gura, who is representing the Second Amendment Foundation in this latest lawsuit, has also asked Judge Scullin to hold the city in contempt for failure to adopt a constitutional licensing scheme as the judge required in the Palmer v. District case. Judge Scullin has yet to issue a ruling.

In the meantime, the District has appealed the Palmer case.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that three men Brian Wrenn and Joshua Akery, of the District, and Tyler Whidby, a Florida resident who also maintains a residence in Virginia were all denied concealed carry permits by Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier. The lawsuit states all three men applied for the permits but were unable to demonstrate a special need for self-protection distinguishable from the general community or provide evidence showing they have been subject to specific threats or previous attacks.

The Metropolitan Police Department did not immediately have a response to the lawsuit.

The concealed carry laws adopted by D.C. lawmakers established a Concealed Pistol Licensing Review Board, to which gun owners who are denied permits by the chief can appeal their cases.

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Gun rights group sues D.C. over concealed carry laws

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'I think we just recognized gay marriage,' lawmaker says after amendment to gun permit bill

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LINCOLN Granting military spouses the right to carry concealed handguns in Nebraska triggered a debate over gay marriage Tuesday in the Nebraska Legislature.

Current law allows nonresident military members to apply for concealed gun permits without having to first live in Nebraska for 180 days to establish residency. A bill advanced from the first round of debate on a 37-4 vote would waive the residency period for military spouses who want to apply for gun permits.

Sen. Paul Schumacher of Columbus, however, questioned whether the bill would allow same-sex spouses to obtain gun permits given Nebraskas Constitutional ban on gay marriage. He proposed an amendment so the gun privilege would apply to anyone receiving the federal benefits of a military spouse.

The Department of Defense extended benefits to same-sex spouses in 2013 following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Is not the Second Amendment sex blind, color blind, Schumacher said. What great evil would come from saying a partner of somebody in the military is entitled to exercise their Second Amendment rights to carry a concealed weapon in this state?

The amendment was adopted by a vote of 38-0.

Sen. John Murante of Gretna, who did not vote for or against the bill, expressed concern that the Schumacher amendment could be used to challenge Nebraskas ban on same-sex marriage.

I think we just recognized gay marriage, he said moments after the vote. We are now using the federal governments standard for who receives marriage benefits.

Sen. Dave Bloomfield of Hoskins, who sponsored the measure, said he does not think the amendment language will open up the states marriage law to attack. The state Constitution definitively says gay marriage is not recognized within Nebraskas borders, he added.

The forms that a gun permit applicant fill out ask nothing about the gender of an applicants spouse, Bloomfield said.

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'I think we just recognized gay marriage,' lawmaker says after amendment to gun permit bill

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The First Amendment Bubble National Constitution Center – Video

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The First Amendment Bubble National Constitution Center
The growth of the Internet has made it ever harder to distinguish public from private, news from titillation, and journalists from provocateurs. Author Amy Gajda examines media today and its...

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The First Amendment Bubble National Constitution Center - Video

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Breaking Windows and Burning Protesters – Video

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Breaking Windows and Burning Protesters
They exercised their first amendment rights, I exercised my right to burnnnnnn. Thanks for Watching! Leave a like, if you like, and subscribe for more 🙂

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Breaking Windows and Burning Protesters - Video

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GMU goes full

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George Mason University

George Mason Universitys STEAM Table forum will present three theatrical works in February, March and April, relating science and the arts, as part of a season of innovation.

A few years ago, Daniel Beck, a member of the board of the now defunct Theater of the First Amendment at George Mason University, mentioned a pressing and growing problem that involved both the arts and sciences.

Beck, who works for Boeings Office of Defense, Space & Security, worried out loud to fellow board members about the retirements of what he called the creative working class.

According to Beck, many of the younger Boeing employees, although highly skilled and knowledgeable in their various fields, were far too specialized. Unlike their older, now retiring counterparts, they lacked exposure to the liberal arts, which combined with the sciences and math seems to engender more creative, often out-of-the-box thinking.

Among those actively listening were Kevin Murray, program manager for and faculty member of GMUs School of Theater as well as an actor, and Rick Davis, executive director of GMUs Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas and former co-artistic director of The Theater of the First Amendment.

Also a playwright, Beck, Murray said, is someone who truly gets it, gets the symbiotic connection between the arts and sciences and the need to reintegrate them in education.

Murray and Davis not only heard Becks concerns but also acted on them, thanks in part to a generous gift from Boeing dedicated to exploring ways to significantly include the Arts in educations growing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) movement, turning it into STEAM.

One of their first steps was to establish an ongoing The STEAM Table forum (whimsy intended in naming). Sponsored in addition by GMUs College of Visual and Performing Arts, a goal of the STEAM Table, which has a website (www.steamtable.org) and newsletter, is to bring together individuals and organizations that are engaged in varied aspects of the arts and sciences to share their thinking.

For Davis, 57, who also teaches theater, directs and acts, the STEAM movement is not looking backward but a sorely needed return to something that worked better than todays too frequent demand to teach to the test.

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GMU goes full

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