Re: "...law enforcement’s own lawful need to access data be taken just as seriously.”
"They can't do that now because there is a legal process of getting a judge to agree that there is suspicion a crime has been committed and you need to perform a search to gather evidence and confirm this."
They can do that now - and have been doing that for some time. Some judges appear to rubber-stamp such applications. Other judges are more considered - but are given misleading "evidence" to sway them to issue the warrant. No one seems to go to jail for having done that.
Checks and balances depend on people in the system upholding both the letter and principle of the law. When a government starts to denigrate and replace members of the judicial processes because they won't allow political interference - then the slippery slope is already present.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
