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> You're pretending that cops are using this in situations where it's known that a warrant is needed, as opposed to it being an exception to "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine when new caselaw is being made.

The ACLU has a decent article about it [1].

Beyond that, there is a substantial power imbalance between law enforcement and private citizens implying that private citizens should be favored by the law where possible to even that out (this is well upheld in case law and documents from the founding of the country). As a private citizen, if you want to do something but are not sure about its legality, do you a) yell "YOLO" and go ahead and do it, b) consult a lawyer, or c) just not do it at all? I believe law enforcement should be held to that same bar.

> That's not what "good faith" means, that's just something entirely made up by you. From a reasonable perspective that could be described as foolish and a waste of time and the public's resources.

"Good faith" is at odds with recklessness and negligence; an action cannot be made both recklessly or negligently and in good faith (supported by majority opinion in Leon v United States, which established the good faith exception). I cannot see a way in which taking an action of unknown legality, while possessing both the time and means to take an alternate action of known legality, is not acting with reckless disregard or negligence to the rule of law and thus incompatible with good faith.

From Leon v United States: "The deference accorded to a magistrate's finding of probable cause for the issuance of a warrant does not preclude inquiry into the knowing or reckless falsity of the affidavit on which that determination was based, and the courts must also insist that the magistrate purport to perform his neutral and detached function and not serve merely as a rubber stamp for the police."

> There's a constant tension between technology, crime and the police that's reflected in the history of 4th amendment jurisprudence and it's not at all like what you describe. The criminals are pushing the boundaries to which the police must catch up, and the law must determine what is fair as society changes over time.

I would genuinely encourage you to review the history of 4th Amendment jurisprudence. It has been continually weakened to the point that only the most flagrant and loudly-announced violations are found unconstitutional, and even then the punishments are virtually non-existent.

Again, the ACLU has a very informative document on it literally called "The Crisis in Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence" [2]. Criminals aren't doing anything particularly new; stashing files somewhere and even encrypting them isn't anything new. Encrypting something in a way that was virtually undecipherable was possible even when the 4th Amendment was written. These are not novel criminal techniques, but the broad liberties given to police with regards to the 4th very much are.

You are welcome to consider me unreasonable. I think there is a fundamental gap in core beliefs causing that. I do not believe criminals are doing anything categorically new, nor that crime is suddenly worse, nor that crime is currently so bad that it demands an exceptional response. Under that set of beliefs, I think opposition to exceptional police powers is reasonable. You seem to believe the opposite, and I can see how my opposition seems unreasonable. I would say that you have fallen victim to unfounded propaganda, and I presume you have a similar accusation to level at me.

Regardless, I do appreciate you engaging in good faith and I wish you weren't ratio-ed on your comment. I do think you have brought interesting points to the discussion.

1. https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/polices-get-out-...

2. https://www.aclu.org/publications/crisis-fourth-amendment-ju...



I'm not OP, but I consider your response quite reasonable.

I found your reply informative and specific, though I took a more fundamental approach in my response to OP, focusing on components required for a "rule of law" compared to a "rule by law" (kafka/soviet style).

I've done a lot of historic reading, and any time those components fail, violence increases proportionally to the lack of agency for non-violent resolution available.

It may just be speculation on my part, but given the repeated cycle, and detailed accounts, it seems there are parallels in objective measures of these components compared with witnessed events, which are what citizens use as a signal to determine whether they take violent action.

The events seem to follow quite accurately along what's been written in social contract theory, and from Thomas Paine's time & writings.

Obviously these type of writings are from times that are dark and violent, and violence benefits few if any which is why there's good cause in trying to prevent that kind of degradation in existing systems, and the dynamics that cause it.




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