TRI In The News

Civil Liberties and the Law

6/16/2011

TRI IN THE NEWS: CIVIL LIBERTIES AND THE LAW

From The Washington Examiner
Original article available here.

I bet you didn't know that federal law enforcement officers representing the Department of Education can break down your front door if you are suspected of violating the law.

This happened to Kenneth Wright of Stockton, Calif. On June 7, at 6 a.m., Wright was awakened by a knock on his door. According to his account, he came downstairs in his boxer shorts, but before he could reach the door, federal police officers stormed in. They were looking for his estranged wife, who was not in the house. Wright has no criminal record.

Wright told a local TV station "News 10" he was grabbed by the neck and taken outside to his front lawn. He says officers then awakened his children, ages 3, 7 and 11, and put them in a Stockton patrol car while his house was searched. "They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatizing my kids," he said.

DOE spokesman Justin Hamilton told the TV station that federal agents with the Office of Inspector General served the search warrant. Hamilton would not say why the raid took place, but he said it was not because someone had defaulted on student loans, as some local media initially reported.

A statement from the OIG said: "The reasons for our search warrant are currently under seal by the court and cannot be discussed publicly." The statement added: "OIG ... is responsible for the detection and prevention of waste, fraud, abuse and criminal activity involving Department of Education funds, programs and operations."

If they were consistent, they'd be breaking down the doors of many failing public schools that are wasting taxpayer funds. They'd be letting children out -- especially poor and minority children -- so they can choose better schools and have a brighter future.

Constitutional lawyer John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute in Charlottesville, Va. (Rutherford.org), says the Stockton incident is one of a growing number of examples threatening the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures..."

Whitehead says the passage of the USA Patriot Act "opened the door to other kinds of invasions" beyond the search for terrorist suspects. "The problems inherent in these situations," he says, "are further compounded by the fact that SWAT teams are granted 'no-knock' warrants at high rates, such that the warrants themselves are rendered practically meaningless."

Two recent cases demonstrate the threat. In an 8-1 Supreme Court ruling last month (Kentucky v. King), Whitehead says the court "effectively decimated the Fourth Amendment by giving police more leeway to break into homes or apartments without a warrant when in search of illegal drugs which they suspect might be destroyed if notice were given."

In the other ruling, the Indiana Supreme Court (Barnes v. State) said people do not have the right to resist police officers entering their homes illegally. Resistance, notes Whitehead, can be as simple as saying, "Wait, this is my home. What's this about?"

If governments are permitted to erode the Fourth Amendment and the public doesn't resist, then that amendment and others protecting speech, religion, the right to keep and bear arms and who knows what else could be in jeopardy.

Incidents like the one in Stockton should cause conservatives and liberals to be more vigilant about the encroaching power of government. The New York Times reports the FBI's approximately 14,000 agents are being given "significant new powers" that will allow them more freedom to search databases, examine your trash and use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who attract their attention.

Worried now?