> But surely we can all agree there exist circumstances under which some lawful intercepts are justified: child pornographers, terrorists actively planning murders, missing persons, etc.
Oh come on, don't be so naive.
> child pornographers
As defined by which country? Is that 16 years old, or 18? Maybe even 21. Just because something is illegal where you are, does not make it illegal in my country/culture.
> terrorists actively planning murders
And now we know the US Govt actively murders it's own citizens without trial, surely we'd have to count them as terrorists, wouldn't we? (let alone what they do it non-citizens)
> missing persons
How long does someone have to be "missing" for that to justify the government having unlimited power? Surely they should just kick down everyone's door until they find what they want [1]
For every example you come up with, it's trivial to point out that it's an extremely slippery slope.
Oh come on, don't be so naive.
> child pornographers
As defined by which country? Is that 16 years old, or 18? Maybe even 21. Just because something is illegal where you are, does not make it illegal in my country/culture.
> terrorists actively planning murders
And now we know the US Govt actively murders it's own citizens without trial, surely we'd have to count them as terrorists, wouldn't we? (let alone what they do it non-citizens)
> missing persons
How long does someone have to be "missing" for that to justify the government having unlimited power? Surely they should just kick down everyone's door until they find what they want [1]
For every example you come up with, it's trivial to point out that it's an extremely slippery slope.
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOvHuojEB4 (etc.)