Banks Share Customers’ Private Data in Violation of Fourth Amendment Rights, Witnesses Testify

News Analysis America’s largest banks are increasingly acting as surveillance arms of the federal government as well as enforcement agents for left-wing ideology, congressional witnesses asserted last week. Since the passage of the Bank Secrecy Act in 1970 to combat organized crime and money laundering, the federal government has been systematically expanding its net to capture more detailed financial information on law-abiding Americans without seeking a warrant or having evidence of criminal activity, they testified.  “Americans write the story of their lives in their bank accounts,” Brian Knight, senior research fellow at George Mason University, stated on March 7 before the House of Representatives hearing on the weaponization of the federal government. “To function in a modern economy, Americans must create a trail of records that can reveal their movements, their religious and political beliefs, their sexual preferences, health conditions, whether they’re likely to own a gun or have had an abortion....