[cvoss]

No, of course we don't believe they would have written it that way today. But neither you nor me nor anyone else gets to make up what we think they'd have said. They didn't say it. They're dead. They can't change what the law says. But, guess what? We can.

The law as written provides the rules of the game. Nobody should get to cheat, not the government, not a citizen, not a business, just because someone can plausibly argue that if the law were rewritten today it'd be written differently.

If the claim is true that the law would be and should be written differently today, then: Rewrite. The. Law.

If you don't have enough public support for that, then you have no business imposing your view on your fellow citizens. If you do have enough public support, but Congress is being dysfunctional (this is usually the case today), then communicate with your congresspeople and/or try vote them out, and persuade your fellow citizens to do the same. Don't cheat at the game. Play it.

[kelnos]

> Don't cheat at the game. Play it.

It sure feels like the game is rigged against regular citizens already, though.

[rayiner]

Which side of this question do you think "regular citizens" are on? The police are the third most trusted institution in the country, after small businesses and the military: https://news.gallup.com/poll/647303/confidence-institutions-.... And for decades, way more Americans have said that courts are too lenient on criminals than the opposite: https://news.gallup.com/poll/544439/americans-critical-crimi....

Now, to be fair, those polls aren't asking people about location data specifically. I'm open to seeing specific polling on this issue. But based on the lack of any political will to do anything about TSA, my suspicion is that "regular citizens" are okay with the police using location data to catch bank robbers.

So maybe your "the game is rigged" point cuts the other way. It's rigging the game when fancy lawyers make complicated arguments about what James Madison would have thought about geofencing, in an effort to impose shackles on the police "regular citizens" never voted for.