Federal Court Rules Against FBI Cutting Internet in Search Dupe

US District Judge Andrew P. Gordon shot down evidence collected by the FBI during a search early this year investigating an illegal online betting ring. Agents cut Internet access to $25,000-per-night villas at Caesar’s Palace Hotel and Casino and searched the premises, posing as service repair providers.

“Permitting the government to create the need for the occupant to invite a third party into his or her home would effectively allow the government to conduct warrantless searches of the vast majority of residents and hotel rooms in America,” Gordon wrote. “Authorities would need only to disrupt phone, Internet, cable, or other ‘non-essential’ service and then pose as technicians to gain warrantless entry to the vast majority of homes, hotel rooms, and similarly protected premises across America.”

Thomas Goldstein, one of the nation’s top Supreme Court litigators who runs the SCOTUSblog, labelled the ruling as “monumental” in protecting privacy in the digital age.

Read more via Ars Technica.

Cables – The Missing Link” by JordanHill School D&T Dept is licensed under CC BY 2.0