There are not many forms of human conduct that come any closer to near universal public condemnation than pedophilia and child pornography. The 9th circuit court of appeals has overturned the conviction of a person for possession of child pornography because the evidence was obtained based on an invasive search of a civilian computer by the US Navy.
Porn conviction tossed over military’s surveillance role
Michael Dreyer, who lives near Seattle, was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2012 for possessing and distributing child pornography that police said they found on his computer. On Friday, a federal appeals court overturned his convictions because of the unlikely — and illegal — source of the investigation.
The U.S. Navy. To be specific, an agent of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Georgia who had a high-powered software program and used it in 2010 to search computers throughout the state of Washington for evidence of child pornography. When the program picked up two child porn images and a video, the agent contacted the FBI, which tracked down Dreyer’s name and address. The naval office then got in touch with local police, who obtained a search warrant. The Department of Homeland Security later got a federal search warrant, and Dreyer was charged in federal court.
When the search was challenged, the Justice Department said a military investigation was justified because there are military bases in the greater Seattle area, and it’s a crime for members of the armed forces to distribute child pornography. But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the computer surveillance didn’t target military bases or personnel but extended across an entire state, resulting in prosecution of someone with no current military connection.
There is always a debate when the courts throw out a conviction of someone who is perceived as having committed a crime because evidence is deemed to be inadmissible under law. This case falls in that category. The dissenting judge in this opinion held that this legal violation was insufficient as a basis for dismissing a serious crime.
However, the news that the US Navy and possibly other branches of the military is engaged in this sort of sweeping surveillance raises lots of other concerns. This decision found a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act which restricts the role of the military in civilian law enforcement. This ties into the concerns about the increasing militarization of state and local law enforcement and merging of state and federal activity.
It also raises a broader concern about 4th amendment rights for protection of search and seizure without a warrant. If the Navy is doing this it certainly raises concerns about the activities of non military agencies such as the FBI and NSA that aren't covered under the Posse Comitatus Act. Ever since the revelations of Edward Snowden it has become clear that technology has advanced to a point that physical barriers between the public and the private have ceased to exist for all practical purposes. It becomes a question of whether or not it is possible to maintain effective legal barriers in this environment.