HB150 Gives Too Great a Power to State


Utah State Capitol

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Utah House Bill 150 is a bad bill that will give government too much power to invade your privacy without a warrant. The bill has passed the house and it now awaiting action in the Senate. Read this post, read the bill, and then take a minute to contact your senator and express your hope that they will vote against it. If you don't know who your senator is, you can find out here.

HB150 would allow law enforcement agencies in Utah to use an "administrative subpoena" to ask for the records of people suspected of committing crimes against children from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) without a warrant. This may sound fine as long as the people are really engaged in suspicious activity, but there's no check to ensure that's the case. That's why warrants exist. They force law enforcement to convince another party (i.e. the judge) that they really do have reasonable suspicion.

I'm all for getting tough on crime and catching bad guys who are exploiting children, but I'm not prepared to give up my 4th amendment rights to make it happen. Good conservatives should be on the side of protecting individual rights and liberties, not handing more power to the state, no matter how noble the cause may sound.

Take a minutes, send your senator a note, and ask them to vote no on HB150.


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Last modified: Thu Oct 10 12:47:19 2019.