Fourth Amendment Busting Sneak and Peek Warrants On the Rise

Fourth Amendment Busting Sneak and Peek Warrants On the Rise: "An Albuquerque television news report aired earlier this week reveals a steep increase by the federal government in the use of unconstitutional sneak and peek search warrants.

Fourth Amendment Busting Sneak and Peek Warrants On the Rise burglar“The warrants have always been around, but their use has spiked since the War on Terror and revamped Patriot Act was signed in 2005,” reports KOAT. “The number of delayed-notice search warrants spiked nationally from nearly 700 in fiscal year 2007 to approaching close to 2,000 in 2009.

See a video report on the KOAT website.

According to KOAT, a majority of the search warrants were not related to terrorism cases. Justice Department figures indicate the majority of the secretive warrants were issued in drug cases.

“While billed as an anti-terror tool, (a sneak-and-peek warrant) had no requirements on it that it precluded it from being used in standard criminal investigations,” Peter Simonson of the ACLU told the news station.

The ACLU said it expects so-called delayed-notice warrant numbers to increase so long as the PATRIOT Act remains law."