Domestic Spying: They Read Your Mail, Too

Big ups to HoT pal (and recently added editor) Michael Hampton for reporting the latest federal mangling of the fourth amendment:

Grant Goodman, 81, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, received a letter from someone described as a “devoutly Catholic Filipino history professor” in the Philippines. The letter had been sliced open from the bottom, and re-sealed with green tape bearing the seal of the Department of Homeland Security and a message saying it had been opened by “Border Protection.”

A letter from a devoutly Catholic Filipino history professor to a professor emeritus… I mean, are they even bothering to profile any more or are they just arbitrarily opening people’s mail? But hey, how dare he assume he has anything resembling freedom from unreasonable searches of his mail:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

It’s scary that this stuff is happening with such regularity that it barely registers a blip on the media’s radar. I’ll bet Mr. Goodman and company will gladly be sending their correspondence by encrypted email next time, since the fourth amendment is apparently just a joke now.