Back to the Thread Topic. Sort of. Warrantless Scanner Searches--General Public
There is an article in the current USA Today (paper version), which I guess means its really the Friday 3/14/11 edition, about TSA or DHS scanner contracts.
ETA: Here is a link to the on-line edition of the story:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-03-04-bodyscans04_ST_N.htm
It turns out that in 2005 and 2006 the fedgov contracted for the development of scanners that could covertly scan people walking down the street. The contract(s) were for several million dollars.
At least one company delivered a prototype. It didn't work for technical reasons (unexplained), and the idea was abandoned. (Hah!)
The article then goes into the objections from privacy advocates.
Then the bombshell is quietly laid down in the article without further elaboration:
The fedgov agency is quoted as saying it reviews all technology for privacy considerations. But, the covert scanners were abandoned as unworkable even before the project progressed to the stage where privacy consideration occurs.
You get that, right? The fedgov went forward with a multi-million dollar contract without first reviewing the privacy considerations. Meaning without first reviewing the 4th Amendment legality of the intended results of the project. Meaning, if they could not establish the 4th Amendment legality, they could not possibly have known whether they even had legal authority to proceed with giving out the contracts.
[Insert long string of the strongest epithets here.]
PS: Notice that since the project was abandoned for technical reasons
before the privacy concerns were evaluated, there is nothing to stop the fedgov agency from trying again once the technical problems are solved. And, you can bet those contractors will be
eager to win new contracts. I'll bet it only takes 1.963 nano-seconds from the time the engineers come up with a solution to the time somebody in that company is calling the government to let them know.