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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (8859)	1/12/2006 1:15:02 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 544240

Why did you get a warrant? Because you want one so badly, m'dear. <g> Seriously, that's part of it. It makes people feel more comfortable since that's what they're used to. They feel more comfortable even though people have no way of knowing if warrants are actually used. But then people's comfort levels aren't always based on insight and reason. I think that the warrant process has some utility. It gives us an outside party with a list of who is being tapped and a count, almost all of them, anyway. It also forces the intel folks to write down why they want to tap someone. I'm a firm believer in the "if you haven't written it down you haven't thought it through" school of thought. It's a touchstone that causes those seeking to snoop to be sure it's warranted given that they have to form words into a request. And it provides an opportunity for that outside party to intervene if things seem to be going awry. It's not a total waste, even if we understand that it might be bypassed sometimes. Oh, yes, and because the Fourth Amendment arguably requires it. <g> BTW, thanks for that good question. Now I know for sure you're on top of what I'm saying.