December 21, 2021–Due Process Institute joined seven other civil liberties organizations calling on Rep. Jerry Nadler, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, to hold hearings for the bipartisan Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (H.R. 2738) in this coming session.
Currently, intelligence and law enforcement agencies, from the Internal Revenue Service to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Customs and Border Protection, allege they can lawfully avoid the constitutional requirement for probable cause warrants by simply buying our personal information from commercial data brokers because the relevant federal statutes do not specifically prohibit such actions.
As a result, data from apps most Americans routinely use are open to warrantless examination by the government and are unaware that the government can obtain personal information by simply opening the federal wallet. These practices are clearly offensive to the spirit of the Constitution and threaten First and Fourth Amendment rights of every American.
But without a hearing to drive the news, most Americans will never know how seriously their privacy has been compromised. Hearings held in the House Judiciary Committee would underscore these disturbing facts, inform the American public, and create the momentum needed to turn The Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act into law.