A Domestic Consequence of the Government Spying on Its Citizens: The Guilty Go Free

In recent years, a seemingly endless stream of headlines have alerted people to the steady and relentless government encroachment on their civil liberties. Consider, for example, headlines such as “U.S. Directs Agents to Cover Up Program Used to Investigate Americans,” “DEA Admits to Keeping Secret Database of Phone Calls,” or “No Morsel Too Miniscule for All-Consuming N.S.A.” Of concern is not only the U.S. government’s collection of data on its citizens, but also how that information is aggregated, stored, and used. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. While the drafters of the Fourth Amendment could not have foreseen the advent of contemporary electronic surveillance measures, it has been suggested that some forms of electronic surveillance come within the protection of the Amendment and trigger the requirement that such a search be reasonable. If the Fourteenth Amendment applies to electronic surveillance, then so does the exclusionary rule, which excludes evidence of guilt that has been obtained as a result of an unlawful search and seizure. A question to consider when assessing the reach of the exclusionary rule is whether it can be used in response to the military’s unlawful surveillance of civilians. Such was the question at issue in the Ninth Circuit’s decision in United States v. Dreyer, a case involving the conviction of a child pornographer who was first brought to the attention of local authorities through information shared by the military. In September 2014, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit found the military’s involvement in civilian affairs to be especially troubling, since such involvement is specifically curtailed by the Posse Comitatus Act, and the court ruled in favor of applying the exclusionary rule to suppress the evidence. Although the Ninth Circuit ultimately reversed in an en banc decision, the court’s initial ruling remains instructive for its application of the exclusionary rule in a situation of perceived military overreach, and that initial ruling remains the focus of this article as evidence of the need for Congress to provide clear guidance in this area. It was the first federal appeals court case to invoke the exclusionary rule as a response to a PCA violation since the enactment of the PCA in 1878. Moreover, recent Supreme Court jurisprudence suggests that the exclusionary rule is losing favor. In light of this shift, an important question emerges: Was the Ninth’s Circuit’s ruling in Dreyer simply an anomaly, or was it the beginning of a trend of courts policing government overreach? This article argues that, in a post-9/11 society in which constitutional protections are increasingly uncertain, congressional action is necessary to ensure effective enforcement of the PCA. Dreyer indicates that in lieu of legislation clarifying the applicability of the PCA, the judiciary will be forced to assume the role of gatekeeper of individual liberties. It has been said that “[p]ower tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The Ninth Circuit’s stinging response to the government’s defense in Dreyer illustrates the court’s belief that the judiciary has a responsibility to curtail the government’s assertion of a broad set of surveillance powers over its citizens. Against the backdrop of an unprecedented amount of governmental spying on citizens and recent reports of covert sharing of information between the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the Ninth Circuit has made clear that absent self-restraint by government agents, it will step in to curtail abuses by rejecting evidence seized through government overreach

A Domestic Consequence of the Government Spying on Its Citizens: The Guilty Go Free

In recent years, a seemingly endless stream of headlines have alerted people to the steady and relentless government encroachment on their civil liberties. Consider, for example, headlines such as “U.S. Directs Agents to Cover Up Program Used to Investigate Americans,” “DEA Admits to Keeping Secret Database of Phone Calls,” or “No Morsel Too Miniscule for All-Consuming N.S.A.” Of concern is not only the U.S. government’s collection of data on its citizens, but also how that information is aggregated, stored, and used. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. While the drafters of the Fourth Amendment could not have foreseen the advent of contemporary electronic surveillance measures, it has been suggested that some forms of electronic surveillance come within the protection of the Amendment and trigger the requirement that such a search be reasonable. If the Fourteenth Amendment applies to electronic surveillance, then so does the exclusionary rule, which excludes evidence of guilt that has been obtained as a result of an unlawful search and seizure. A question to consider when assessing the reach of the exclusionary rule is whether it can be used in response to the military’s unlawful surveillance of civilians. Such was the question at issue in the Ninth Circuit’s decision in United States v. Dreyer, a case involving the conviction of a child pornographer who was first brought to the attention of local authorities through information shared by the military. In September 2014, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit found the military’s involvement in civilian affairs to be especially troubling, since such involvement is specifically curtailed by the Posse Comitatus Act, and the court ruled in favor of applying the exclusionary rule to suppress the evidence. Although the Ninth Circuit ultimately reversed in an en banc decision, the court’s initial ruling remains instructive for its application of the exclusionary rule in a situation of perceived military overreach, and that initial ruling remains the focus of this article as evidence of the need for Congress to provide clear guidance in this area. It was the first federal appeals court case to invoke the exclusionary rule as a response to a PCA violation since the enactment of the PCA in 1878. Moreover, recent Supreme Court jurisprudence suggests that the exclusionary rule is losing favor. In light of this shift, an important question emerges: Was the Ninth’s Circuit’s ruling in Dreyer simply an anomaly, or was it the beginning of a trend of courts policing government overreach? This article argues that, in a post-9/11 society in which constitutional protections are increasingly uncertain, congressional action is necessary to ensure effective enforcement of the PCA. Dreyer indicates that in lieu of legislation clarifying the applicability of the PCA, the judiciary will be forced to assume the role of gatekeeper of individual liberties. It has been said that “[p]ower tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The Ninth Circuit’s stinging response to the government’s defense in Dreyer illustrates the court’s belief that the judiciary has a responsibility to curtail the government’s assertion of a broad set of surveillance powers over its citizens. Against the backdrop of an unprecedented amount of governmental spying on citizens and recent reports of covert sharing of information between the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the Ninth Circuit has made clear that absent self-restraint by government agents, it will step in to curtail abuses by rejecting evidence seized through government overreach

Some Empirical Criteria for Attributing Creativity to a Computer Program

Peer reviewedPostprin

Hydrodynamic induced deformation and orientation of a microscopic elastic filament

We describe simulations of a microscopic elastic filament immersed in a fluid and subject to a uniform external force. Our method accounts for the hydrodynamic coupling between the flow generated by the filament and the friction force it experiences. While models that neglect this coupling predict a drift in a straight configuration, our findings are very different. Notably, a force with a component perpendicular to the filament axis induces bending and perpendicular alignment. Moreover, with increasing force we observe four shape regimes, ranging from slight distortion to a state of tumbling motion that lacks a steady state. We also identify the appearance of marginally stable structures. Both the instability of these shapes and the observed alignment can be explained by the combined action of induced bending and non-local hydrodynamic interactions. Most of these effects should be experimentally relevant for stiff micro-filaments, such as microtubules.Comment: three figures. To appear in Phys Rev Let

Effectiveness of a social support intervention on infant feeding practices : randomised controlled trial

Background: To assess whether monthly home visits from trained volunteers could improve infant feeding practices at age 12 months, a randomised controlled trial was carried out in two disadvantaged inner city London boroughs. Methods: Women attending baby clinics with their infants (312) were randomised to receive monthly home visits from trained volunteers over a 9-month period (intervention group) or standard professional care only (control group). The primary outcome was vitamin C intakes from fruit. Secondary outcomes included selected macro and micro-nutrients, infant feeding habits, supine length and weight. Data were collected at baseline when infants were aged approximately 10 weeks, and subsequently when the child was 12 and 18 months old. Results: Two-hundred and twelve women (68%) completed the trial. At both follow-up points no significant differences were found between the groups for vitamin C intakes from fruit or other nutrients. At first follow-up, however, infants in the intervention group were significantly less likely to be given goats’ or soya milks, and were more likely to have three solid meals per day. At the second follow-up, intervention group children were significantly less likely to be still using a bottle. At both follow-up points, intervention group children also consumed significantly more specific fruit and vegetables. Conclusions: Home visits from trained volunteers had no significant effect on nutrient intakes but did promote some other recommended infant feeding practices

Targeted mixing in an array of alternating vortices

Transport and mixing properties of passive particles advected by an array of vortices are investigated. Starting from the integrable case, it is shown that a special class of perturbations allows one to preserve separatrices which act as effective transport barriers, while triggering chaotic advection. In this setting, mixing within the two dynamical barriers is enhanced while long range transport is prevented. A numerical analysis of mixing properties depending on parameter values is performed; regions for which optimal mixing is achieved are proposed. Robustness of the targeted mixing properties regarding errors in the applied perturbation are considered, as well as slip/no-slip boundary conditions for the flow

Pepper-pot emittance measurement of laser-plasma wakefield accelerated electrons

The transverse emittance is an important parameter governing the brightness of an electron beam. Here we present the first pepper-pot measurement of the transverse emittance for a mono-energetic electron beam from a laser-plasma wakefield accelerator, carried out on the Advanced Laser-Plasma High Energy Accelerators towards X-Rays (ALPHA-X) beam line. Mono-energetic electrons are passed through an array of 52 mu m diameter holes in a tungsten mask. The pepper-pot results set an upper limit for the normalised emittance at 5.5 +/- 1 pi mm mrad for an 82 MeV beam

Predicting beach rotation using multiple atmospheric indices

12 month embargo required

Direct transition to high-dimensional chaos through a global bifurcation

In the present work we report on a genuine route by which a high-dimensional (with d>4) chaotic attractor is created directly, i.e., without a low-dimensional chaotic attractor as an intermediate step. The high-dimensional chaotic set is created in a heteroclinic global bifurcation that yields an infinite number of unstable tori.The mechanism is illustrated using a system constructed by coupling three Lorenz oscillators. So, the route presented here can be considered a prototype for high-dimensional chaotic behavior just as the Lorenz model is for low-dimensional chaos.Comment: 7 page