Important Privacy Votes Pending in Augusta

Some hugely important votes could take place in the Maine legislature any day that will have a direct impact on Mainers' privacy.  We really need your help to ensure that privacy prevails.  Click here to find your legislator and call or email them right now.  In a hurry?  Use our action alert system here.  The issue at hand is whether law enforcement should have to get a warrant based upon probable cause before spying on you.  Whether it's cell phones, drones, or cameras, we think the Fourth Amendment should apply.  After all, there's no technology exception written into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The first vote -- on LD 415 to require warrants for geolocational tracking -- was scheduled for today but postponed until tomorrow.  The opposition is fierce.  Law enforcement argue that it's too much of a burden to have to go before a judge to obtain a warrant before tracking people via their cell phone or other portable electronic device.  They also claim that this is covered by federal law, but the last time the federal law was updated was back in 1986, before most people had cell phones and long before GPS or the World Wide Web even existed. 

Votes will follow soon on three other bills requiring law enforcement to get a warrant before conducting non-emergency surveillance via drones (LD 236), text message (LD 1377), or game cameras (LD 1040).  Call or email your legislator now, and let them know that the Constitution is important.  You can find your legislator and his or her phone number here.  The Fourth Amendment should be applied to new technology, and the legislature should act to protect Mainers' privacy before it's too late.

LD 236 would require law enforcement to get a warrant before conducting drone surveillance, and it would prohibit the deployment of weaponized drones by law enforcement in Maine.  Our opponents have put forward an amendment to the bill so that police would police themselves by developing internal policies.  We think that going to a judge is really important, and a warrant should be required.

LD 1377 would require law enforcement to get a probable cause warrant before accessing your text messages.  Our opponents argue that text messages belong to the phone company, not you, to which we say no one would say that the US Postal Service owns your letters, so why should the privacy protections for text messages under the law be any different?

LD 1040 would require law enforcement including game wardens to get a probable cause warrant before placing a surveillance camera on your property.  Law enforcement says that you should only have privacy in your immediate yard, not in the woods behind your house.  We think that's too low of a standard, especially for folks living in rural Maine with larger property lots.

While these bills seem simple, especially to civil libertarians, it's an uphill battle, so every personal contact with legislators matters.

Fired up?  So are we.  I was at the legislature last night until 7:30 pm.  I'll be there tomorrow night as well.  But I could use your help.  Please click here to look up your legislator and then call or email them.  Or if you're in a hurry, you can click here to email them directly.  Let them know that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are important.  We can preserve both our safety and our constitutional freedoms.  Thank you!