Obama's "snitch line" violates the federal privacy act.

Earlier this month, the White House unveiled a new section of its website called "Reality Check," which retails stale Obama talking points on healthcare and also included a snitch line for Obama supporters to inform the White House on opponents of Obamacare. The snitch line, also unveiled on the White House blog, asked: "Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to [e-mail]."

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The obvious concern is that the new snitch line will enable the Obama administration to build an "enemies list," just as Richard Nixon did during his stay in the White House.

The problem with Obama's snitch line is that it violates the federal Privacy Act of 1974, which Congress passed in an attempt to avoid another Nixon-style "enemies list." Former judge and Fox News Channel commentator Andrew Napolitano explained that the White House has put itself into a legal conundrum on this issue. "There's also a statute that requires the White House to retain all communications that it receives. It can't try to rewrite history by pretending it didn't receive anything," Napolitano told Fox News on August 7. "If the White House deletes anything, it violates one statute. If the White House collects data on the free speech, it violates another statute."

The White House quietly took down their snitch line at "Reality Check" over the August 8-9 weekend, but the original snitch line message on the White House blog has not been removed as of this writing.