Over the last few decades, the courts and Congress have gradually made the warrant clause of the Fourth Amendment superfluous. Now the majority of searches in the United States are done without searches and private companies are now conducting searches for copyright and trademark infringements with the pleasing of Congress (and the lobbyists that shape the laws). Now, government agents have been offering a type of inverse Miranda warning — explaining that we don’t need stinking warrants in raiding homes. In a recent raid, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent were asked if they had a warrant, one agent reportedly said, “We don’t need a warrant, we’re ICE,” and, gesturing to his genitals, “the warrant is coming out of my balls.”
On the night of October 20, 2010, ICE agents broke in the front door of the home of Angel Enrique and Jesus Antonio who were in bed in their small, two-bedroom apartment in Nashville.
The statement above appears to indicate that either ICE agents have been surgically enhanced to produce warrants or now operate with utter impunity as well as immunity.
The ACLU and ACLU of Tennessee this week filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of fifteen residents of the apartment complex who were subjected to raid, which included local police. These include U.S. citizens and even “a child detained and interrogated while playing soccer on the playground simply because of the color of his skin.”
Once again, the courts have allowed for searches that run against the express language of the Constitution and intent of the Framers. Citizens are being searched and detained without warrants by officers who mock the notion that they require any prior judicial approval or review. Because the targets of these searches are often the under-class, the public seem unconcerned as a matter out of sight, out of mind for society.
Here is the lawsuit: Clairmont filing
Source: ACLU
I fail to see the difference between the ICE and any other law enforcement agency. Is this idea that the police don’t need a warrent not a direct result of the Patriot act. Did not loosening the requirements under the false pretence of fighting terrorism not lead us down the long dark road to the Gulag?
Isn’t it the failure to recognize the approaching darkness that leads us to carry not a candle. And for want of a candle, the whole world was lost to darkness
Although wrongly uttered at the time, the phrase that “9/11 changed everything” has become true in the sense that it has degraded constitutional law and as a consequence our freedom. That it was allowed to “change everything” ensured the victory of the perpetrators, whoever they may be and I mean that in the sense that I don’t think it was simply Al Queda behind it.
“Balls! Balls!” said the Queen. “If I had two I’d be King”
Also, I don’t get it. What’s the problem with the picture? I’ve had several cats and they all liked…I mean their favorite toy was this round……..well anyway Woosty, you stay a cat.
that picture was disturbing, Dredd.
ICE is only the tip of the iceberg, and that ICEberg has balls.
The bulk of it is down underground, below see level, and it is going to hurt you and I even more than it already has.
That is what scorpions do y’all.
A victim without “F-U MONEY” cannot access any constitutional rights at all. ~Malisha
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That is the second time in my whole life that I have heard the term FU MONEY. And I am not of the ‘overly cultured’ I hope in all this time of ‘deconstruction’ that ‘pay to play’ has not simply morphed into ‘pay to live’.
And money and f*cking should not be in the same mix outside of consent and those legal places in Nevada…..
Wow, Woosty, I love your phrase:
strange and undecipherable system of selective enforcement.
This is what is wrong with the whole system. Selective enforcement is just a method of tyranny because it injects pre-evaluation (because pre-event) prejudice into every act of government. If you DO NOT bash down the door of a millionnaire who can hire a cadre of attorneys to smash somebody for the infraction, you can keep any kind of illegality going. A victim without “F-U MONEY” cannot access any constitutional rights at all.
On the other hand, maybe it is not all THAT undecipherable…
What Jill, rafflaw and Blouise said.
Sometimes it sucks to be an American watching your country being dismantled piece by piece.
Amen Blouise!
“disappering detainees”(raff) can’t complain about warrantless searches … nice and neat and deadly
ICE is an abomination to the rule of law. If it isn’t searching without a warrant, it is disappering detainees indefinitely. I hope the ACLU action gets some traction in Nashville.
Because the targets of these searches are often the under-class, the public seem unconcerned as a matter out of sight, out of mind for society.
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I don’t agree.
the Public, is outraged.
But the power of enforcement of EXISTING laws lay in the hands of the STATE and all its minions. Who seem hell bent on terrorizing the public with their strange and undecipherable system of selective enforcement.
The real ‘under-class’ are the thugs, petty theives, opportunists, manipulators and systemic dodgers that seem to be thriving under our current regime. In fact I wonder when, with abatement of denial, they will finally be declared our current regime?
Damm I was hoping for a more pleasant start to the day….
Personally, I am a lot more worried about bounty hunters and their immunity from prosecution for egregious violations of our rights. I would like to know the legal basis that ICE claims for its warrantless searches. Under the part of the Constitution that allows for the suspension of habeus corpus, it would appear to grant some limited right of the government to do such things.
In fact, the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII was entirely legal under those terms.
Police State. Racist Police State. Racism is committed by America’s first Black president. Time to see the truth. A Black president can be racist. A white president can be racist. It’s the policies that matter.
JT is also correct to point out class. Right now, the police state goes after those who have no voice. No accident. While all the good Americans remain silent, the police state keeps expanding. Make no mistake, the police state will include the good Americans who remained silent, watching the suffering of others while cheering the man who made it possible.
Remember the 4th amendment?
“Moroni Deported to Sweden; Says He’s Not From There.”
The judiciary is moving right along as was pointed out in the post. Who wuddah thunk that evolution is something that moves things from left to right?
Oops, that was Roman Moroni (Johnny Dangerously, 1984)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei2WhctlRHY&feature=related
Johnny Maroni speaks directly to the fargin iceholes