NCJ Number
190812
Journal
Independent Review Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: Fall 2001 Pages: 185-216
Date Published
2001
Length
32 pages
Annotation
The 1994 Federal Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) is emblematic of today's ubiquitous government encroachment on the privacy of Americans.
Abstract
Although represented prior to passage as an innocuous measure intended only to maintain existing government authority, CALEA as statutory law immediately became a "springboard" in the Federal Government's quest for increased surveillance power. In implementing CALEA through its Third Report and Order of August 31, 1999, the Federal Communications Commission gave the FBI unprecedented power to track the physical location of cellular phone users and to obtain the content of private communications in a variety of circumstances without a probable-cause warrant. How and why CALEA achieved passage, how overreaching Federal officials have used it, and how recent court rulings have affected CALEA's implementation reveal much about the multifaceted threat to privacy that is emerging in the United States. Even if privacy and civil liberties groups ultimately prevail in some aspects of legal challenges to CALEA, the actions by Federal officials that artificially increased the political transaction costs of resisting expanded Federal surveillance authority have dampened overt resistance to these measures. The result is public acquiescence to a larger scope of surveillance authority than would have been tolerated if political transactions costs had not been artificially increased. 36 references