Porn conviction tossed over military’s surveillance role

[bananas]

6. Navy Guilty of Illegally Broad Online Searches - "routine practice" - not an isolated incident

http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/09/12/71363.htm

Friday, September 12, 2014
Navy Guilty of Illegally Broad Online Searches
By TIM HULL

(CN) - Navy investigators regularly run illegally broad online surveillance operations that breach the line against military enforcement of civilian law, a divided 9th Circuit ruled Friday.

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The 2-1 majority rejected the government's argument that the military is allowed to monitor and search all computers in a state without prior knowledge that a computer's owner is even in the military.

"To accept that position would mean that NCIS agents could, for example, routinely stop suspected drunk drivers in downtown Seattle on the off-chance that a driver is a member of the military, and then turn over all information collected about civilians to the Seattle Police Department for prosecution," wrote Judge Marsha Berzon for the majority.

The panel also warned that the present case suggests that Logan's broad search was not an isolated incident.

"So far as we can tell from the record, it has become a routine practice for the Navy to conduct surveillance of all the civilian computers in an entire state to see whether any child pornography can be found on them, and then to turn over the information to civilian law enforcement when no military connection exists," the ruling states.

"We have here abundant evidence that the violation at issue has occurred repeatedly and frequently, and that the government believes that its conduct is permissible, despite prior cautions by our court and others that military personnel, including NCIS agents, may not enforce the civilian laws."

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