Robyn Greene: A Tool in the Government's War on Privacy and Terror.

That is how many times between October 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010, federal judges let the government avoid telling someone that their home or office had been searched, and that law enforcement officers rifted through, and potentially even seized their personal belongings. We contacted the Administrative Office of the US Courts to obtain up-to-date numbers on how frequently the government uses the 'sneak and peek' searches, also called delayed-notice searches, a government surveillance tool authorized by the PATRIOT ACT. The report shows that in 2010, sneak and peek warrants were issued more than twice as often as in 2009, and more than three times as often as in 2008. Federal laws usually require the government to notify you if it searches your property. This notification serves as an essential protection for the exercise of your rights, since it lets you know if you need to protect yourself against unlawful government searches, but sneak and peak search warrants allow investigators to enter and search an individual's business or dwelling and delay notification for up to 30 days longer,'if the facts of the case justify' it, and then obtain an indefinite number of 90-day extensions.