Re: A lengthy preliminary analysis of the Leahy bill.

At 12:26 PM 3/11/96 -0500, Peter D. Junger wrote:
>     (4) the authority and ability of investigative and law enforcement
>     officers to access and decipher, in a timely manner and as provided
>     by law, wire and electronic communications necessary to provide for
>     public safety and national security should also be preserved;


This provision of the bill makes the entire bill a worthless 
pile of repressive shit, despite all the pious good intentions
in the rest of the bill.

A little constitutional history:

The supreme court used to rule that congress could not delegate 
its own power to bureaucrats, as this violated the principle of 
rule of law.

Thus congress could pass a law than in a certain situation you had 
to do such and such, or refrain from doing so and so, but it could 
not pass a law that in a certain situation you had to do whatever 
some bureaucrat told you to do, because that would violate 
separation of powers and the principle of the rule of law, not men.

Roosevelt threatened to stack the court, the court submitted, and the rule
of law in the US was radically diminished.

The proposed bill would seem to give bureaucrats the power to set aside the
first, fourth, and fifth amendments, at whim.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
              				|  
We have the right to defend ourselves	|   http://www.jim.com/jamesd/
and our property, because of the kind	|  
of animals that we are. True law	|   James A. Donald
derives from this right, not from the	|  
arbitrary power of the state.		|   jamesd@echeque.com

On Mon, 11 Mar 1996 jamesd@echeque.com wrote:

> At 12:26 PM 3/11/96 -0500, Peter D. Junger wrote:
> >     (4) the authority and ability of investigative and law enforcement
> >     officers to access and decipher, in a timely manner and as provided
> >     by law, wire and electronic communications necessary to provide for
> >     public safety and national security should also be preserved;
> 
> 
> This provision of the bill makes the entire bill a worthless 
> pile of repressive shit, despite all the pious good intentions
> in the rest of the bill.

Careful here.  Note exactly what the bill says:

wire and electronic communications necessary to provide for
public safety and national security should also be preserved;

SHOULD ALSO be preserved.

Typically this means that it's not going to be funded by this bill, and 
that this is just a bit of extra hint as to legislative intent.

I will grant you that it's not a nice bit, but it could easily have said 
"WILL be preserved."

Note this clause also does not assign the authority to any agency, or 
suggest how it might be accomplished.  It's a good indicator of where 
things are going, but in itself, it implements nothing.

(Disclaimer: I haven't read the entire bill yet).

---
My prefered and soon to be permanent e-mail address: unicorn@schloss.li
"In fact, had Bancroft not existed,       potestas scientiae in usu est
Franklin might have had to invent him."    in nihilum nil posse reverti
00B9289C28DC0E55  E16D5378B81E1C96 - Finger for Current Key Information