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by shardling 4660 days ago
This seems like one of those things people say to score points, rather than to actually engage in the process of using their brains.

There are a myriad of things that are legal for the government to do that are illegal for a common citizen. There's no irony in that.
2 comments
meritt 4660 days ago
It doesn't require a wall of text to point out the sheer lunacy of the prosecution. Sometimes a simple analogy is sufficient.

Weev didn't hack anything. He committed data theft and possibly attempted extortion. Those should be the the basis of his trial.

Also, just to be clear, those things are actually quite illegal for the government to do both on a national and international scale.

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Amadou 4660 days ago
There are a myriad of things that are legal for the government to do that are illegal for a common citizen. There's no irony in that.

If the government does not require a warrant to do something, then it should be legal for anyone to do. After all, the entire purpose of a warrant is to insure oversight in the use of government power.

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azernik 4660 days ago
The government doesn't require a warrant to take your property by taxation or for eminent domain.

The government doesn't require a warrant to prevent people from entering or leaving the country.

The government doesn't require a warrant to block off city streets or do any of a number of things to public property.

The only things that the Constitution requires the government to get a warrant to do are "search and seizure", which are terms with very specific meanings in the Common Law. The NSA somehow argues that intercepting people's traffic isn't a "search" until an analyst actually looks at it, which I think is a ridiculous argument; however, the response isn't "everything you do needs a warrant", but "that's a search, and searches need warrants".

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Amadou 4660 days ago
Your examples are just word games. The intent of a warrant is oversight, all of those examples require oversight, some more so than others, but all of them require some sort of accountability.
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pseingatl 4660 days ago
The government buys and sells illegal drugs all the time. Flies them into the country. Sells them on the street. But if you do this, off you go.
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