This is a frightening precedent for civil liberties.
I have to agree with dissenting Judge Karen Nelson Moore, who wrote,
U.S. District Judge Janet Neff wrote,
Constitution liberties are not subject to popularity contests. Law enforcement has an innate tendency to expand its jurisdiction like a wildfire in the wind. Judges must be a firebreak to prevent harm and humans being consumed by that fire.
Judges must steel themselves against all-too-human, inner emotions and exercise mental discipline.
It is precisely where a defendant is unpopular or reviled that calm and levelheaded thinking in a judge is most required.
While this case involves the repugnance of child pornography, the law of this case will soon be applied to other searches for any alleged crimes. This holding is not limited to child pornography cases. Anything you ever searched is on a computer today.
I have to agree with dissenting Judge Karen Nelson Moore, who wrote,
"I cannot think of any other circumstances where we have endorsed an invasion of a person's privacy with so few facts from which to draw an inference that the intrusion would likely uncover evidence of a crime."
U.S. District Judge Janet Neff wrote,
"There is no such things as a fair-weather Constitution, one which offers the harbor of its protections against reasonable search and seizure only in palatable contexts and only to worthy defendants."
Constitution liberties are not subject to popularity contests. Law enforcement has an innate tendency to expand its jurisdiction like a wildfire in the wind. Judges must be a firebreak to prevent harm and humans being consumed by that fire.
Judges must steel themselves against all-too-human, inner emotions and exercise mental discipline.
It is precisely where a defendant is unpopular or reviled that calm and levelheaded thinking in a judge is most required.
While this case involves the repugnance of child pornography, the law of this case will soon be applied to other searches for any alleged crimes. This holding is not limited to child pornography cases. Anything you ever searched is on a computer today.
