Sheriffs in North Carolina are demanding access to state computer records identifying anyone in the state with prescriptions for powerful painkillers and other controlled substances. The obvious intrusion into the privacy of citizens is being justified as potentially allowing police to make more drug arrests.
The dragnet would pull in thirty percent of the citizens who have at least one prescription for a controlled substance. That is nearly 2.5 million people.
Such a proposal should result in public outcry and recrimination. However, the legislature is considering the request.
It is astonishing that we have come to a point where such a demand is considered plausible. We are quickly turning into a fishbowl society where every aspect of our lives remain under government surveillance and monitoring. This is a change in our country, which is based, as stated by Louis Brandeis, “the right to be left alone.” There are any number of things that can make it easier for the government including total access to financial and medical records as well as discretionary searches and seizures. Privacy often loses when “balanced” against claims of crime fighting. As citizens become more accustomed to government intrusion, it makes further intrusions possible. The Katz test premises the right of the government to engage in warrantless surveillance on the “reasonable expectation of privacy of citizens.” As those expectations fall, the power of the government increases — creating a downward spiral.
Privacy remains an abstraction that fades away in the presence of “tough on crime” rhetoric. What concerns me is that an association of sheriffs would have so little appreciation for core privacy values and traditions. As Brandeis observed in his dissenting opinion in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928):
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.
Source: News Observer
Jonathan Turley
Dr/Sheriff Arpaio clones…We’ll git yur blood one way or the ‘tuther.
“Why should We the People care what government says? The rulers of any given system ultimately only rule at the consent of the governed. Ask Marie Antoinette if you doubt this historical lesson. No where in the Constitution does it grant the President the right to violate our rights and act like an Imperial Dictator. If you think it does? Learn to the contrary the hard way.” (Buddha)
Reposted for emphasis!
There there.
I’m sure Slarti will find justification for all this too.
After all, we are living in a bad economy you know.
Given the ever blatant and ever increasing Constitutional violations, obeying the law is rapidly becoming optional in accordance with the social compact.
You keep violating We the People’s Constitutional rights and our duty to government to comply rapidly slides down that slippery slope too, Washington.
Stop encroaching on our Civil Rights!
Restore habeas corpus!
Restore the rule of law now!
Repeal the Patriot Act!
Arrest and try those who have tortured in Our name!
Reign in the overreaching Executive Branch!
Because if you don’t?
Why should We the People care what government says? The rulers of any given system ultimately only rule at the consent of the governed. Ask Marie Antoinette if you doubt this historical lesson. No where in the Constitution does it grant the President the right to violate our rights and act like an Imperial Dictator. If you think it does? Learn to the contrary the hard way.
When justice is finally had, I’ll be the one saying, “I told you so, you myopic self-interested egoist venal career politician dumbasses.”
Buddha is Not Amused and justice is still a pendulum.
See South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission or the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal for a historical example.
Keep on the road of trampling the citizens in the “name of security” you’re on, Washington, and you’ll be seeing a replay soon enough.
It’s time to dismantle both the GOP and the DNC for their abuses.
Get ready for martial law!
U.S. Does Not Have System In Place To Deal With Growing Threat Of Domestic Radicals: Report
Repression often cloaks itself in the disguise of high-minded, safety-first rhetoric. Isn’t that how the Bushies sold their ill-named, cowardly and unconstitutional Patriots’ Act.
Buddha,
Maybe the sheriffs just want to get the “good stuff” without payin’ for it!
I suppose the sheriffs don’t already have enough crimes to investigate–so they have to go looking for some?????
culheath
1, September 10, 2010 at 10:37 am
This is what you get when you spend hundreds of millions of dollars over decades pushing hysterical anti-drug propaganda and tens of billions over decades building a totally out of control war on drugs bureaucracy.
Wait until law enforcement follows the new military habit of shopping out their duties (read drug busts) to mercenary groups akin to Xe.
Civil control of this country is disintegrating at an amazing pace.
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Hear … hear
And everything Buddha said
AY,
I’m ready for the next installment … keep ’em coming.
Nal,
I think you are correct about that. He was the first Jew on the court. He hailed from Kentucky and was very familiar with intrusive behavior of the police. He spent time in Russia and Germany. Six of Stalins staunches supporters were Jewish. Ya see what happened to them. He was also aware many year before most Americans of the atrocity going on in Germany. If memory serves me correctly he was inspired by an uncle that was closely aligned with getting Lincoln nominated and elected. I think it was Dewaltz or something like that.
The next good one that would have had a difficult time is Benjamin Cardozo whose family was not only Jewish, but catch this Portuguese. He probably couldn’t even get on the short list because if memory serves me he did not go to Harvard or Yale but to some unprecedented school call Columbia.
Earl Warren one of my hero’s is to be saved for another chapter and verse.
Nal It is almost certain that next year’s Congress will be worse.
This is what you get when you spend hundreds of millions of dollars over decades pushing hysterical anti-drug propaganda and tens of billions over decades building a totally out of control war on drugs bureaucracy.
Wait until law enforcement follows the new military habit of shopping out their duties (read drug busts) to mercenary groups akin to Xe.
Civil control of this country is disintegrating at an amazing pace.
I doubt that Louis Brandeis could get confirmed in today’s Congress. What a sad commentary on our present state of affairs.
Buddha,
The cops want permission to do whatever they want, whenever they want, with no recourse what so ever.
I can already see the new law enforcement vehicles that they will be coming out with in the next five to ten years, which will all be heavily technology driven, having this database active in real time as they drive around neighboorhoods, etc… They want to be able to keep an eye on these potential “criminals,” er, hm, patients. They are already scanning license plates in some squad cars in real time. The more information added to the GPS-based database system the better, right?
And don’t forget about those “no refusal” blood draws down in Texas. Officers taking the citizenry’s blood by force right on the side of the road. They love playing doctor.
Get a grip, America. It’s time to JUST SAY NO to new power grabs and privacy invasions.
Double what Buddha said.
Buddha is Angry about this one.
It’s bad enough that insurance companies are allowed to practice medicine without a license, but law enforcement?
Police State Thuggery.
Make more drug busts based on what exactly? The presumption that the Sheriff’s Department know better than someone’s doctor what medications they should be taking? I didn’t know they were handing out medical degrees with badges these days. Especially since one requires years of schooling followed by the Hippocratic Oath and the other only requires you to be willing to shoot someone and act like a thug under the color of state authority.
Quite simply for even considering the matter, the legislature of North Carolina and their Sheriffs deserves a firm and hearty “Fuck you, you meddlesome busybody pricks.”
Mind. Your. Own. Business.
And be prepared for the HIPPA challenges.
And Falls Church VA put a gps tracking device on a car without a warrent.
The police state is upon us and growing.
All too often, law enforcement and prosecutors do not have a clue. I recall seeing a story on TV a few years ago about a fellow with severe back pain. As I recall, he was confined to a wheelchair. He was prosecuted for ‘intent to distribute’ because he had so much pain medication in his possession. He was sent to prison and now, in prison, he lives in the department of corrections medical facility where he is on MORE medications for his pain than he was in the free world.
The prosecutor was interviewed and came across as a self righteous prig who is still convinced the prosecution was justifiable because no one ought to have that much pain medication around unless they are dealing.
This story should scare the hell out of every cancer and pain patient in the country. Doctors are already frightened that they will have the gendarmes show up at their office and perp walk them out through their crowded waiting room in handcuffs.
All this makes it harder and harder for legitimate pain patients to get medication for palliative relief from suffering.
Class 2 or higher Controlled substances are already required to be filed with the state. But then again, I hear that there is a cop (former) that paid for sex with drugs and other items….maybe its a new Vice squad squeeze……Just for grins, I wonder how many time Rushs’ would appear……