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Privacy Rights blog
Can Police Search My Car? Eleven Questions About Traffic Stops Answered Eleven plain answers about traffic stops and car searches, built on the Supreme Court cases that set the rules. General information only, not legal advice. Unalienable Means You Cannot Even Give Your Rights Away, and Here Is Why The Declaration's one odd word does heavy work. It means certain rights cannot be sold, signed away or voted away, and that limits even a democratic majority. Civil Asset Forfeiture Lets Government Keep Property Without a Conviction Government can take property tied to a crime without charging the owner, and property-rights and police-side conservatives weigh that power differently. Conservatives disagree about red-flag laws, and both sides deserve a hearing Red-flag laws split conservatives: a targeted alternative to gun bans or a due-process hazard. Both cases stated fairly, then the safeguards that decide it. The Patriot Act After Two Decades, Two Conservative Verdicts Compared Conservatives who passed the Patriot Act and conservatives who fought its renewal both invoke the Fourth Amendment. Each case, side by side, with the record. The Ninth Amendment Is Neither a Blank Check for Judges Nor a Dead Letter Conservatives split over the Ninth Amendment. Read with Madison and Federalist 84, it is a binding rule of construction, not a judicial license. General Warrants Made the Fourth Amendment, and Particularity Is Its Heart The Fourth Amendment was written against the general warrant, and its demand for particular descriptions is the rule that matters most for your phone. The Third Amendment Is the Quietest Right and Still Teaches the Most The ban on quartering soldiers in private homes looks like an antique, but it holds the whole idea that a home is a castle against the government. Griswold v. Connecticut and the Right to Privacy Built From Penumbras Griswold struck down a law almost no one defended, but the method it used, rights found in penumbras, became the template for Roe, and that is the problem.