Any true liberal will be against this. It violates our constitutional right to privacy, like the patriot act.
Grrr. Pet Peeve alert.
Do you hate the Patriot Act, apparently the entire act, because it violates the right of privacy or because some liberal blog in recent years told you its bad and highlighted a few points and so that's all you care about...
Cause if its the former why are you not equally railing against the FISA legislation along with Title III of the 1968 Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Acts, which both acted as the foundations for what Patriot did and extended in most ways.
Of course, those are generally ignored by bloggers post Patriot because I mean....they're old, they're not tied to Bush, they're not big buzz words, and if we focus on them people may realize that the vast majority of the Patriot Act was updating 30+ year old legislation into the digital age, and that'd REALLY **** up their rhetoric and muck stirring.
[/rant]
In regards to this, I'm not sure how I stand. Is tracking a search and siezure if its done through finding out your cell phones location? Is it illegal for government to check camera records from ATM's and street cams to see if they spot your liscense plate without a warrant? Can they tail and follow you without a warrant? Can they place some kind of tracking or monitoring device on your car without one?
Honest questions there, I'm not 100% sure about any of them.
I would lean on yes, there should probably be a warrant to do this, but I would say the burden of proof should be extremely low to get it just for tracking.
Also it has time working against its favor when compared to the more questionable portions of the Patriot Act. Historically during times of great crisis this country has shown itself, time and time again, willing to let the scale tip to the side of security and from that point it slowly tilts back towards the "freedom" side till the next major crisis.
In this case, I don't know if there's really a crisis enough that the political will to allow for such a thing will be found understandable in the context of history.
I think ultimately I would be against this, just as I am for the continued repeal and sunsetting of various Patriot Act provisions.