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Obama administration says Constitution protects cell phone recordings

davmat787

Diamond Member
Good for the Obama administration, this issue has been popping up in many cases across the country the past few years. It worries me that so many officers thought it would be ok to take ones cell phone, and delete its contents. Obviously they were not worried about the fallout, which says a lot IMO. Hopefully this will help put this issue to rest.

The Obama administration has told a federal judge that Baltimore police officers violated the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments by seizing a man's cell phone and deleting its contents. The deletions were allegedly in retaliation for the man's use of the phone to record the officers' arrest of his friend. According to the Maryland ACLU, this is the first time the Obama Justice Department has weighed in on whether the Constitution protects citizens' right to record the actions of police with their cell phones.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...nstitution-protects-cell-phone-recordings.ars
 
Isn't Obama notably the fist president to use a Blackberry/mobile device for business on a frequent basis. :sneaky:

/conspiracy

Honestly, this is a good thing. Very good explanation of the ruling.
 
The Obama administration has told a federal judge that Baltimore police officers violated the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments by seizing a man's cell phone and deleting its contents.

I agree 100% with the call.

However I think the Obama Admin are doing it backwards. They do not get to make the call if it is constitutional or not the courts do.
 
The Obama administration has told a federal judge that Baltimore police officers violated the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments by seizing a man's cell phone and deleting its contents.

I agree 100% with the call.

However I think the Obama Admin are doing it backwards. They do not get to make the call if it is constitutional or not the courts do.

IANAL, but I think this is more of a "friend of the court" type of thing. The DOJ Civil Rights dept. produced this finding and filed it with the court handling the case. Whether the judge uses it in any manner is a different matter.

Maybe Wolfe or someone else can tell us how these third party findings/filings come into play.
 
I agree with Obama on this, but have you noticed that Obama only butts into police business when the officers are white?
 
Isn't Obama notably the fist president to use a Blackberry/mobile device for business on a frequent basis. :sneaky:

/conspiracy

Honestly, this is a good thing. Very good explanation of the ruling.

Really?? Do you think President Obama is into fisting???
 
Can you quote me a time when Obama stepped into police business when the cops involved were black? I can show you more than one time when he did it and the cops were white.

So are you implying anything by pointing that or not? If not you are free to remove any doubt about that being a backhanded accusation of racism against the president.
 
Finally, we can add something to the "plus" column for this administration. It's a very rare event, but in this case they finally did the right thing. The fact that police departments and government officials think it's perfectly OK to destroy or confiscate people's cell phones, arrest people for recording public activity and so forth is disturbing to say the least.
 
So are you implying anything by pointing that or not? If not you are free to remove any doubt about that being a backhanded accusation of racism against the president.


No implications at all. I am openly saying he only intervenes with police business when it involves white officers.

Feel free to show me a case where he did such when it involved black officers and I will gladly recant my statement.
 
Finally, we can add something to the "plus" column for this administration. It's a very rare event, but in this case they finally did the right thing. The fact that police departments and government officials think it's perfectly OK to destroy or confiscate people's cell phones, arrest people for recording public activity and so forth is disturbing to say the least.


Agreed. There are times when the recordings should not be made public, to protect officers and the like, but that should be the exception, not the norm.
 
Can you quote me a time when Obama stepped into police business when the cops involved were black? I can show you more than one time when he did it and the cops were white.

This is quite a sample size you have. 2 instances of Obama stepping into police business.
 
This is quite a sample size you have. 2 instances of Obama stepping into police business.

100% of the time is pretty telling. Can you show me a single instance where the cops are black?

Heck, in the first instance he publically chastized the white cop for doing his job properly.
 
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