Apparently our domestic mail has been opened without benefit of warrants needing only the approval of the US Postal Inspection Service Director. Each day our freedoms erode further and further and we can thank the extended use of signing statements for some of it.
There’s reason to believe more mail may be being opened, as well.
In late 2006, a signing statement issued by President Bush suggested that his office had expanded executive branch power to open mail without a warrant.
The signing statement accompanied H.R. 6407, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, which reiterated a prohibition on opening first class mail without a warrant.
“In 1996, the postal regulations were altered to permit the opening of First Class mail without a warrant in narrowly defined cases where the Postal Inspector believes there is a credible threat that the package contains dangerous material like bombs,” the ACLU said in a press release at the time. “Instead of referencing the narrow exception in the postal regulations, the president’s signing statement suggests that he is assuming broader authority to open mail without a warrant.”
I would think this would be one issue we could ALL agree on, this assault on the Fourth Amendment.
Do our fellow citizens also feel there’s no problem allowing their government to spy on every one of their phone calls, cell calls, emails, snail mail, workplace computers, etc. I would hope we could all agree on drawing a line in the sand on this one?
Is it only those of us who already know we have to be diligent in protecting our rights from those among us who want more and more power over our lives?
Do those of you who don’t see the Coquille Police issues in the same light we do feel the threat that we all do?