House Judiciary Introduces FISA Reform Bill

A group of lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee has unveiled legislation Monday to restrict the intelligence community’s warrantless surveillance authority and impose stiffer punishments for violations.

Spearheaded by Arizona GOP Rep. Andy Biggs, the plan boasts Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Ranking member Jerold Nadler, D-N.Y., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., as cosponsors, The Hill reported.

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Commentary: FBI Chief Replies with Less-than-Inspiring ‘Not to My Knowledge’ When Asked About Tricky FISA Warrants, Criminal Investigations

“Not to my knowledge.”

That was FBI Director Christopher Wray’s response to questioning from U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) at the House Judiciary Committee on July 13 about whether the Justice Department and FBI utilize parallel construction — where law enforcement agencies are handed information obtained from Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants or via warrantless surveillance by intelligence agencies, not unlike the FISA surveillance of the Trump campaign in 2016 that became the Russiagate counterintelligence and eventually criminal investigation — and then act on it.

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McMinn County Sheriff Warns Residents of New Phone Scam Circulating

McMinn County Sheriff Joe Guy is warning residents of a scam call that was recently reported to the sheriff’s office. The caller targeting McMinn County residents alleges he or she is from the McMinn County Sheriff’s Office Warrant Department and demands money in order to “avoid jail time.”

Scammers use this type of technique to target local residents as a phishing scam to extort money.

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Michigan Supreme Court Could Decide Warrantless Government Drone Spying Lawsuit

An appeal filed with the Michigan Supreme Court says the government must get a warrant before it can surveil private property for evidence.

The Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, says the government violated the Fourth Amendment when it used warrantless drone surveillance to snap pictures of Todd Maxon’s 5-acre property in Long Lake Township where he repairs cars, as proof of zoning violations.

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Minneapolis Pauses No-Knock Raids after 22-Year Old Killed

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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey paused no-knock warrants after a pre-dawn raid led to the killing of 22-year-old Amir Locke.

“No matter what information comes to light, it won’t change the fact that Amir Locke’s life was cut short,” Frey said in a statement. “To ensure safety of both the public and officers until a new policy is crafted, I’m issuing a moratorium on both the request and execution of such warrants in Minneapolis.”

Body camera footage shows a SWAT team using a key to open a downtown Minneapolis apartment at 6:48 a.m. Wednesday. Police entered and shouted: “Police, search warrant! Hands! Get on the ground!” and kicked a couch, where Locke stirred from under a blanket with a gun. Then an officer shot Locke three times. Nine seconds passed from officers entering the apartment to firing. Locke died 13 minutes later.

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Controversy After Man Shot and Killed by Minneapolis Police

Activists and police disagree on the narrative on what happened in the death of Amir Locke, who was shot and killed by a Minneapolis Police officer Wednesday night as a SWAT Team attempted to serve a warrant. 

Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) Public Information Officer Casper T. Hill referred The Minnesota Sun to a press release explaining the MPD’s version of events. 

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DOJ IG Checked 29 More FBI Spy Warrants, and Found Problems with All of Them

The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General has a “lack of confidence” in the FBI’s procedures to validate information used to obtain spy warrants on American citizens, the watchdog said in a report released Tuesday.

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found errors in all 29 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant applications that were subject to the review.

The audit is a follow-up to an investigation of the FBI’s surveillance of Carter Page, the former Trump campaign aide.

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Governor DeWine Creates Task Force to Tackle the Over 300,000 Open-Warrants Issued in Ohio

Thursday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed Executive Order 2019-10D and officially established the Governor’s Warrant Task Force. The special committee has a wide mandate to investigate, analyze, and suggest solutions to Ohio’s deeply burdened and onerous open-warrant backlog. The move is the first step to fulfilling one of DeWine’s campaign promises. According to a recent study by the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio has more than 300,000 open arrest warrants. of these, 23,000 involve some form of violent act or weapons abuse. These numbers are so overwhelming that there is no effective way to analyze or, more importantly, prioritize which warrants should take the highest priority. This means that the most dangerous repeat violent offenders are buried beneath more ubiquitous and benign repeat parking offenders. The governor noted in his statement: New warrants are issued every day in this state, piling on top of a growing backlog of old unserved warrants. It is simply impossible for law enforcement to keep up, which threatens the safety of our residents and communities. I’m asking members of this task force to take a good look at this problem and identify options for improving this overwhelmed system. The task force is comprised of more than twenty members from a wide array of disciplines,…

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Supreme Court to Police: Get Off the People’s Lawn

by Elizabeth Slattery and John-Michael Seibler   This week, the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment does not permit a police officer to enter uninvited onto someone’s driveway to search a parked vehicle, without first obtaining a warrant. That’s an important ruling, since no one wants police officers roaming across their private property searching for evidence of a crime. But Justice Clarence Thomas raised another important issue in a concurring opinion: In that scenario, what remedy should there be against the officer’s unlawful behavior? Thomas proposed an answer that bucks Supreme Court precedent, but holds true to the original meaning of the Constitution. The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, and generally requires police to obtain a warrant before searching or seizing someone’s property. The Supreme Court has recognized several exceptions to the warrant requirement, however, including for automobiles—since they can be driven off at a moment’s notice, and are subject to manifold regulations, courts will allow police to search vehicles based on probable cause that a crime has occurred without first obtaining a warrant. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] The…

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