Explain four examples of current technology-based challenges to the Fourth Amendment.
Answers
Law is the formal embodiment of rules that legislators, regulators, and judges etch into statute books, administrative manuals, and judicial decisions. It is unavoidable and desirable to see the law change as technology becomes increasingly sophisticated.
Before there were automobiles and aircraft, there was no need for a law prohibiting their theft.[1] Similarly, before there were telecommunications systems, there was no need for a law to protect the integrity of the conversations of subscribers.[2] And before there were electronic devices such as satellites, digital cameras, and Cray computers, there was no reason to be concerned with the government’s use of those tools to find, identify, acquire, analyze, and store significant amounts of information about Americans.