The issue of illegal interception (wiretapping) of private communication without a warrant is coming before the United States Supreme Court.

The published Virginia Court opinion in Ryan Pick’s case make it legal for anyone to impersonate someone else and intercept their private phone calls, texts, emails, and other electronic communications. 

This must be overturned by SCOTUS.

Mr. Pick was convicted of solicitation of the minor “Lilly,” an imaginary girl manufactured by Det. Troy Payne using photos of a female.  Payne impersonated this female and intercepted all private communications intended for her – without a warrant.  Then Payne used entrapment to manufacture a crime.  The Virginia Appellate Court correctly ruled that Lilly is not a “person.”  However, the Court cherry picked the words of the interception law, ruling that Payne was a “person party to the communication,” therefore Payne did not criminally violate the statute.  This ruling explicitly omitted the words “where such person is a party to the communication” which makes impersonation a felony, when it the statute is cited properly.  (18 U.S.C. § 2511, Va. Code § 19.2-62)

Please show your support for this issue by gathering signatures for the petition requesting the SCOTUS take Pick’s case.  A case must have national significance before they take it.  Ask as many people as possible across the country to sign the petition by December 10, 2021.  A great task for Thanksgiving Day with the relatives!  These signatures will be attached as an appendix to Pick’s petition for a writ of certiorari.

For information about Pick’s case and other similar cases, read “Manufacturing Criminals; Fourth Amendment Decay in the Electronic Age.” (Amazon and Barnes & Noble).  Ryan Pick is Mr. PPPPP in the book.