statism

Supreme Court to consider if silence can be evidence of guilt

"The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider whether a suspect's refusal to answer police questions prior to being arrested and read his rights can be introduced as evidence of guilt at his subsequent murder trial. Salinas' lawyer argued that his client deserved a Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, even though he had not been under arrest or read his rights under the landmark 1966 decision Miranda v. Arizona. Last April, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction but noted that federal appeals courts are split as to whether 'pre-arrest, pre-Miranda silence is admissible as substantive evidence of guilt.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSupreme Court to consider if silence can be evidence of guilt

DOJ sends bundle of completely censored documents in response to ACLU lawsuit

"Responding to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Department of Justice (DOJ) turned over a bundle of documents that are completely blacked out. The lawsuit was filed after the DOJ ignored a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information on how the agency interpreted a 2011 Supreme Court decision that bans law enforcement from using GPS technology to track Americans without a warrant. The Department responded to the lawsuit with 111 pages of attorney memos, but only two pages are legible. The rest are covered by large black rectangles that blot out all useful information." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDOJ sends bundle of completely censored documents in response to ACLU lawsuit

U.S. attorney defends handling of Aaron Swartz case as ‘appropriate’

"A US prosecutor at the center of a controversy over the handling of a case involving an Internet activist who committed suicide has defended the government’s actions as 'appropriate.' Assistant US Attorney Carmen Ortiz expressed regret over the death of Aaron Swartz, who was accused of illegally copying and distributing millions of academic articles from a database but said prosecutors were merely doing their job." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. attorney defends handling of Aaron Swartz case as ‘appropriate’

Statist Media Courtesan: All Rights are “Infringe”-able

"The cliché about shouting fire in a crowded theater was coined to justify a horrible Supreme Court ruling that upheld the prosecution of an individual who used his rights under the First Amendment to protest the draft during World War I. Rather than building on such bad precedents we should be correcting the abuses they produced. Leaving those matters aside, however, Andrea Mitchell apparently doesn’t understand that even in those cases, the government did not infringe rights through prior restraint – that is, pre-emptively punishing people for crimes they haven’t committed. That’s one of the myriad evils embodied in so-called gun control measures." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStatist Media Courtesan: All Rights are “Infringe”-able

3D Printers Can Now Pump Out 30-Round Magazines

"A video from Defense Distributed popped up just in time for Barack Obama's momentous address to the nation about, among other things, banning the sale of 30-round magazines. The video shows a test fire of an assault rifle using a 3D-printed 30-round clip. The capability adds another layer to the loopholes and problems that exist in a 'high-capacity magazine' ban. The implication is that, as technology becomes more available, it won't be long before regular people can put 30-round magazines in the printing queue next to their TPS reports." Continue reading →

Continue Reading3D Printers Can Now Pump Out 30-Round Magazines

Westerners Kidnapped in North Africa — but Is France the Real Target?

"Tightened security measures sent hundreds of armed soldiers patrolling Metros, train stations, airports and tourist sites across France, while officials instructed the French people to be wary of the increased risk of attack at home — and abroad. News reports indicated Islamist radicals had kidnapped numerous French, European, and American workers from an oil installation in eastern Algeria. Somalia’s al-Shabab militia also announced it would execute a French spy. Those developments came after warnings by a jihadi leader in Mali on Monday that by attacking Islamist forces in Africa, 'François Hollande opened the gates of hell for all French people.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWesterners Kidnapped in North Africa — but Is France the Real Target?

France adopts words of war by vowing to ‘destroy terrorists’

"With its talk of 'destroying' enemies and confronting 'jihadi terrorists', France has adopted a language of war for its intervention in Mali that few expected from Socialist President Francois Hollande. As French warplanes carry out airstrikes and French troops clash with Islamist rebels in the West African country, Hollande and his ministers seem to have taken a page from former US president George W. Bush’s playbook on war-time communications. French media reported that ministers have been banned from using the words 'Islamist fighters' in statements on the conflict and must always refer to rebels as 'terrorists'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFrance adopts words of war by vowing to ‘destroy terrorists’

Debate intensifies over ‘draconian’ cyber crime laws after Aaron Swartz’s death

"As funeral services were held for Internet activist Aaron Swartz, the debate intensified over what some called a 'draconian' US computer crime law used by allegedly overzealous prosecutors. An online petition calling for the removal of the prosecutors in his case garnered more than 31,000 signatures Tuesday and some of Swartz’s supporters blamed a 1986 computer crimes statute for his suicide. Swartz, who was just 14 when he co-developed the RSS feeds that are now the norm for publishing frequent updates online and went on to help launch social news website Reddit, hanged himself in his New York apartment on Friday." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDebate intensifies over ‘draconian’ cyber crime laws after Aaron Swartz’s death