The letter and the law

I'm no civil liberties or privacy (or any kind, for that matter) lawyer, but it seems to me that when the government introduces law that would give discretion to the police to demand, obtain, and track correspondence in the mail system, that we're on unstable ground. According to the NY Times (via Yahoo! news: White House wants FBI to be able to track mail), that is exactly what one particular bill proposes.

According to a draft of the bill obtained by the Times, the plan would effectively eliminate postal inspectors' discretion in deciding when mail covers are needed, giving sole authority to the FBI, if it decides that the material is "relevant to an authorized investigation to obtain foreign intelligence."

Now, nobody is suggesting that postal inspectors are any more capable of dealing with this kind of thing than anyone else. And, we all oppose terrorism. But,

Officials on the Intelligence Committee said the legislation was intended to make the FBI the sole arbiter of when a mail cover should be conducted, after complaints that undue interference from postal inspectors had slowed operations, the Times said.

Isn't that sort of like "due processes" in its own way? The postal administration is putting up a strong front from their privacy office. Good for them. Because the real slippery slope starts when you consider that the USPS probably has the mechanical equipment to scan the "mail cover" of every letter that passes through their hands.

Posted by Grayson at May 23, 2005 02:26 PM