Got a cell-phone? Feds can search your house

[HTH can some still insist this is a free country?]

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/20/got-a-cell-phon-fcc.html

Got a cell-phone? FCC claims the right to search your house
by Cory Doctorow

The FCC claims that its powers to inspect radio equipment in order to catch pirate radio stations means that it can also enter and search any home that has a WiFi access point, a cordless phone, a baby monitor, or a cell phone.
"Anything using RF energy -- we have the right to inspect it to make sure it is not causing interference," says FCC spokesman David Fiske. That includes devices like Wi-Fi routers that use unlicensed spectrum, Fiske says.

The FCC claims it derives its warrantless search power from the Communications Act of 1934, though the constitutionality of the claim has gone untested in the courts.
That's largely because the FCC had little to do with average citizens for most of the last 75 years,
when home transmitters were largely reserved to ham-radio operators and CB-radio aficionados.
But in 2009, nearly every household in the United States has multiple devices that use radio waves and fall under the FCC's purview, making the commission's claimed authority ripe for a court challenge.

"It is a major stretch beyond case law to assert that authority with respect to a private home, which is at the heart of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure," says Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer Lee Tien.
"When it is a private home and when you are talking about an over-powered Wi-Fi antenna
-- the idea they could just go in is honestly quite bizarre."

dobbie6060 wrote:

[HTH can some still insist this is a free country?] http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/20/got-a-cell-phon-fcc.html Got a cell-phone? FCC claims the right to search your house by Cory Doctorow The FCC claims that its powers to inspect radio equipment in order to catch pirate radio stations means that it can also enter and search any home that has a WiFi access point, a cordless phone, a baby monitor, or a cell phone. "Anything using RF energy -- we have the right to inspect it to make sure it is not causing interference," says FCC spokesman David Fiske. That includes devices like Wi-Fi routers that use unlicensed spectrum, Fiske says. The FCC claims it derives its warrantless search power from the Communications Act of 1934, though the constitutionality of the claim has gone untested in the courts. That's largely because the FCC had little to do with average citizens for most of the last 75 years, when home transmitters were largely reserved to ham-radio operators and CB-radio aficionados. But in 2009, nearly every household in the United States has multiple devices that use radio waves and fall under the FCC's purview, making the commission's claimed authority ripe for a court challenge. "It is a major stretch beyond case law to assert that authority with respect to a private home, which is at the heart of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure," says Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer Lee Tien. "When it is a private home and when you are talking about an over-powered Wi-Fi antenna -- the idea they could just go in is honestly quite bizarre."

That's one I hadn't heard of before but it is hardly the only way law enforcement can enter your home to conduct a search without a warrant.
There are quite a few methods for law enforcement to use to conduct a search of a person or property without a warrant. A few examples that spring to mind are what is known as a wingspan search, a fugitive search, or my favorite, the one that allows an officer to search a motor vehicle or mobile home that has the wheels still attached under it with just reasonable suspicion because of the flight risk just to name a few. It always amuses me when folks get wind of this and the shock that follows. Part of why I respond the way I do when the issue of privacy comes up.

However the alarm over this is overdone. Where there seems to be some confusion is in what exactly can be done to you in such a search Like your example of the FCC most of these types of searches are very limited in scope. The 4th amendment protects you from unreasonable search and seizure, not from any search and seizure. What that means in practical terms is that law enforcement cannot search your premises or person for no reason at all and if they find something then prosecute you for it. There must be at a minimum what is known as "reasonable suspicion" of a crime or criminal activity or in the case of a warrant search "probable cause" which is a much higher standard. Taking the FCC example and putting it in very very simple terms if they were to search your home to inspect your Rf devices and found say drugs, pornography or stolen goods unrelated to any electronic equipment in your home they could not use any of that evidence against you because it was not the subject of the initial search nor was it specifcally listed on a search warrant. They couldn't come back with a warrant later and arrest you for it either though they could get a warrant and conduct a search for "new" evidence based on the find. It would not stop the seizure of the contraband (after all it is illegal goods) but neither could you be prosecuted for it. That's putting it in awfully simplistic terms but maybe sheds some light on the matter.