Re: Leahy bill nightmare scenario?

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 9:42 PM 3/21/96, E. ALLEN SMITH wrote:

>        I would like to remind people that the US judicial system, while not as
>always mistaken as some believe, is not particularly noted for not making
>serious errors in this area. For instance, regarding the forfeiture scheme,
>quite a few competent lawyers have examined civil forfeiture - used for _any_
>crime - and found it to be a violation of the Bill of Rights.

And yet civil forfeiture continues, in a big way, There are entire police
departments who count on civil forfeiture to supply them with cars, boats,
planes, helicopters, and who count on sales of seized assets to fund their
departments.

(From the yachts seized in Dade County to the killing of a retired doctor
who had land in Malibu desired by the cops, the civil forfeiture situation
is grim.)

>        Moreover, it is the contention of many lawyers - such as with the
>ACLU - that the whole ITAR scheme should have been thrown out long ago as
>unconstitutional. That it has not been so may be taken as an indication of how

By the way, it was also the opinion of lawyers within the NSA that a real
test of the ITARs in court should be avoided because they would likely be
ruled unconstitutional. (Source: private conversation with Carl Nicolai,
inventor of the PhaserPhone, suppressed by a Patent Secrecy Order, who was
allowed, with his lawyer, to look through certain legal papers at NSA
headquarters. He encounterd memoranda to the effect that an ITAR challenge
would likely see the ITARs thrown out. I communicated this information to
Phil Karn and the EFF a couple of years ago.)

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."