Cell Phones, Wiretapping, and You

Cal Thomas | Syndicated Columnist | Updated: Feb 23, 2010

Cell Phones, Wiretapping, and You


February 12, 2010

The Obama administration is rapidly becoming like the Bush administration it so often criticizes.

It hasn't closed Guantanamo despite a promise to do so. It is seriously thinking of not holding the Khalid Sheik Mohammed trial in New York. It criticized Bush for wiretapping to protect America against terrorists and now federal authorities tapped cell phones to find the location of bank robbers in Dallas. In that case, the Obama administration has argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their - or at least their cell phones' - whereabouts.

During the Bush administration, the ACLU and many Democrats argued that Bush and Cheney were violating the Constitution and even their oaths of office. To them, wiretapping without a warrant was illegal. Now they want to do the same thing. What's more, they now claim there is no reasonable expectation of privacy when it comes to telephone conversations. Too bad that attitude doesn't extend to the unborn.


Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.

Cell Phones, Wiretapping, and You