Re: Root Causes

[liberty@gate.net (Jim Ray)]

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<snip>

PLEASE NOTE: IANAL either [yet] But,

MONTY HARDER wrote:

>     [Please do not start an abortion flamefest on the list. If you want
>     to argue it via Imail, I can handle that, but let's not bother the
>     rest of the class, OK?]

I agree, and this post has nothing to do with that controversy [I hope].

>
>  The Supremes found the right to have an abortion in some kind of
>"penumbral" right to <BOLD> privacy </BOLD>, which in turn came from
>Griswold v. Connecticut, if organic RAM serves. Given this precedent,
>may we challenge anti-crypto crap such as the Grassley Bill as a
>violation of the right to privacy?

Good idea, but I have an idea to upset even *more* people.
First of all, has anyone else noticed how the Republicans have placed
life-and-death emphasis lately on the oft-ignored 10th Amendment.

Amendment X -- "The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
States respectively, or to the people."

IMO, the Republicans will continue to do this as long as they can win
the overwhelming majority of governorships, which is for the foreseeable
future. Democrats, of course, don't like this and prefer unconstrained
federal power [preferably in the hands of someone other than Newt, though].
There is, however, another Amendment which goes beyond being oft-ignored 
to the status of being truly forgotten, without ever having been repealed.

Amendment IX -- "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights
shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

[The right to write code was among many rights NOT enumerated.]

Republicans AND Democrats ALL HATE the 9th Amendment, which is the primary
reason *I* like it so much. Various lawyers, judges, and [especially]
law professors will sputter that the 9th is "impertinent!" or "irrelevant!" 
and should be ignored, and Jim Ray is just spouting off [again] about the
slow erosion of freedom in this country. My rejoinder is "OK, if we're
supposed to ignore it, why not just REPEAL it, after all, it's just sitting
there doing nothing, cluttering up the rest of the Bill of Rights." Usually,
conversation [and, I suspect, my eventual grade] degenerates at this point.
Those C-punks not in law school, however, should keep the 9th in mind when
talking about Constitutional issues on encryption rights, if for no other
reason than to educate the public. In court, of course, I would concentrate
on the 1st. Apologies to the various lurking law professors on the list, I
am not talking about you. Also, this diatribe is mere academic speculation
and not a legal opinion and IANAL and I have been known to be wrong in the
past and I no-doubt will be wrong again in the future and most people in 
the legal profession think this is wrong so don't rely on it and your lawyer
will think you are crazy if you say this to him (so don't) and so on and
so on...
JMR
>
>
<snip>
Regards, Jim Ray
"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong." Voltaire
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