FC: Rep. Armey asks Justice Department to rethink Carnivore's use

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---
Background:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=carnivore
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=armey
---

Majority Leader Armey is sending a letter this morning to Attorney General 
Ashcroft asking him to respond to the privacy concerns raised by the 
Carnivore cybersnooping system.

Richard Diamond
Office of the Majority Leader
US House of Representatives
202-225-6007 / www.freedom.gov

June 14, 2001

The Honorable John Ashcroft
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Dear Attorney General Ashcroft,

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling regarding law 
enforcement's use of technology. The Court ruled that thermal imaging 
devices allowed "police technology to erode the privacy guaranteed by the 
Fourth Amendment." In particular, the Court held in Kyllo v. United States 
that use of electronic devices to gather information that would not 
otherwise be available constitutes a search:
Where... the Government uses a device that is not in general public use, to 
explore details of a private home that would previously have been 
unknowable without physical intrusion, the surveillance is a Fourth 
Amendment "search," and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant.
It is reasonable, then, to ask whether the Internet surveillance system 
formerly known as "Carnivore" similarly undermines the minimum expectation 
that individuals have that their personal electronic communications will 
not be examined by law enforcement devices unless a specific court warrant 
has been issued.

Your predecessor, Attorney General Janet Reno, reluctantly undertook a 
review of Carnivore last year in an attempt to address these 
concerns.  That review, however, seemed to raise more questions about the 
system than it answered.  The review team ultimately selected was found to 
have clear political ties to the Clinton Administration.  According to 
media accounts, most major universities declined even to participate in the 
review proposal process due to questions about its objectivity.  And, not 
surprisingly, they delivered a report restating the previous 
Administration's position on the system.

Because I am confident that you will take a much more constructive approach 
to this issue, I wanted to share my privacy concern with you directly. I 
believe the FBI is making a good-faith effort to fight crime in the most 
efficient way possible. But I also believe the Founders quite clearly 
decided to sacrifice that kind of efficiency for the sake of protecting 
citizens from the danger of an overly intrusive government.

I respectfully ask that you consider the serious constitutional questions 
Carnivore has raised and respond with how you intend to address them.  This 
is an issue of great importance to the online public.

I look forward to working constructively with you on this and many other 
issues in the coming years.

                                        Sincerely,
                                        DICK ARMEY
                                        House Majority Leader





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