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posted by
CoolHand
on Wednesday May 06 2015, @08:25AM
from the for-very-large-values-of-unreasonable dept.
from the for-very-large-values-of-unreasonable dept.
When the United States Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson was asked, "do you believe the government has the right to bulk collection of records from millions of individuals without a warrant", his response was that the question was "beyond my competence as secretary of homeland security" to answer.
The original article touches on some important details and raises key criticisms of the slipshod method currently used to obtain communications records for millions of people from US phone companies in violation of the spirit, if not letter, of the US Constitution's Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable government searches and seizures.
Source video for quotes and context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_auHdE89qQ
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Homeland Security Chief: Fourth Amendment is 'Beyond My Competence'
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Remember Darwin; building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Thursday May 07 2015, @06:50PM
No, he can't do that either. The law makes specific duties of the secretary explicitly stated in the form of "The Secretary of Homeland Security shall" meaning that not performing the stated duty is a criminal offense.
A quick internet search shows a few examples of explicit duties of the role:
the Secretary of Homeland Security shall achieve situational awareness of the international borders of the United States.
Obama can't order him to not do that unless he has a constitutional imperative to do otherwise.