Page 2 - Smith Versus News Today

That decision. as you know, the religious freedom restoration act, congress was dissatisfied with the level of protection afforded by the supreme court under the first amendment to religious exercise. the court in a case called smith versus maryland written by justice scalia said any neutral law of general applicability is fine. that does not offend the first amendment, so laws banning the use of peyote, native americans, tough luck, even though it is essential to their religious exercise. for e...

Aopportunity to talk to you about that decision. as you know in rifra, the religious freedom restoration act, congress was dissatisfied with a level of protection afforded by the supreme court under the first amendment to religious exercise. the court in a case called smith versus maryland written by justice scalia said any neutral law of general applicability is fine. that doesnt offend the first amendment. laws banning the use of paoti, native americans, tough luck. even though its essential t...

Both opinions spend a preliminary several pages on standing issues and other inside baseball issues. but when they get to the constitutional analysis, its night and day. >> how is this going to affect the debate, do you think? >> i think ultimately this is going to work its way up to the supreme court. i believe that this is governed by exist supreme court precedent, a case called smith versus maryland. i dont think that is going to be changed. i think it is going to come out the n.s.a.s way. on...

Been under the amendment. if you entrust your data to a third party like a phone company or a credit card company, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. >> but why did leon then say that precedent -- because hes a lower court judge, why did he say that supreme court precedent doesnt apply right now? >> he said technology has changed so much that the case no longer pertains. smith versus maryland wasnt about how or how much meta data the government collects. whether its the local police ...

Going to iowa in a few days and most people dont know who you are, thats a good strategy to attack hillary but i dont think its necessarily a policy argument. >> elizabeth warren has said no, hasnt she? >> theres a number of people saying no. a number of candidates could run and no one expected howard dean in the past and no one expected barack obama in the past. >> i expected barack obama. i thought this guy is on his way. >> well, you are exceptional. >> listen, i never once said i thought hil...

>> the circuit and the supreme court. this is no way conclusive. it is a warning. the reason is because it seems to reverse what has been the constitutional norm since 1979. there was a case in 79. smith versus maryland. the supreme court said there is no expectation of privacy about the data and records of a phone call. in other words you have an expectation of privacy as to the content of the call. since there is a third party that knows about the call, the length of the call, the phone and th...

With other programs, helps keep this nation safe. im not saying its indispensable. im saying that it is important. and it is a major tool infer letting out a potential terrorist attack. >> senior democrat saying we still need this. >> well, but that is not indispensable, which i think was an amazing concession on her part. judge leon said, you know, im here. you could have given me a classified briefing to show why this was necessary. nobody has done that. he really challenged the idea that it w...

>> the circuit and the supreme court. this is no way conclusive. it is a warning. the reason is because it seems to reverse what has been the constitutional norm since 1979. there was a case in 79. smith versus maryland. the supreme court said there is no expectation of privacy about the data and records of a phone call. in other words you have an expectation of privacy as to the content of the call. since there is a third party that knows about the call, the length of the call, the phone and th...

Who is sitting there who said no to a 9-11 terrorist. you give up. >> gregg: yeah. you wrote a column about this. its called "privacy matters." people should read it. its a terrific column. you write about correctly the expectation of privacy under the famous katz versus u.s. case. that was about the content of conversations and people eavesdropping on that. this, however, is on its face, its data collection, meta data, and under smith versus maryland, 1979, the court said there is no 4th amendm...

Judge is not hearing from the other side. hes only hearing for the government. >> it is ex parte and thats true. but thats the big bargain we set up when congress passed the foreign intelligence surveillance act back in the 70s. which is if the government wanted to listen to the conversations that people suspected of being foreign agents, suspected of being spies, suspected of being terrorists, then we had to have some oversight. we couldnt just let nsa run and do the interception. so we did, we...