The announcement that the Biden administration proposed a $600 (now $10,000) threshold for bank account surveillance has left many people on social media wondering how such a proposal could be considered constitutional under the Fourth Amendment. They aren’t the first to ask. The question of financial privacy was taken all the way to the Supreme Court in 1976. And it was in United States v. Miller that the Court reasoned a person cannot voluntarily provide information to a financial institution and expect that information to be protected by the Fourth Amendment. Yet, maybe it’s time to reconsider that decision.

The Proposal