[lbo-talk] If you live in the USA, you probably have already committed a felony today

[Gar Lipow]

On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 1:20 PM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:
> [WS:] Also, if you live in the USA, the chances are that such a statement
> is an opening salvo in a campaign to gut some environmental or safety
> regulation, so some rich assholes can make more money.
>
> My guess is that the great majority of these laws being broken daily are
> safety, traffic, or environmental protection laws or regulations.  So I am
> not sure what the alternative is - some libertarian wet dream in which one
> does what one can afford to do and the only laws on the books are those
> protecting private property of the haves?
>

Tom Walker got it right. One response is  not being quite so sanquine
about the US government having an unlimited right to  "Metadata" on
grounds that if you are innocent you have nothing to fear. Nobody is
innocent under current Federal law. Actually the article does suggest
something that I don't have the legal background to be clear on the
implications of. There is a longstanding legal principle in US and
British law that ignorance of the law is no defence. There another
legal principle, that the article claims is recent and problematic,
that many Federal crimes no longer require proof of criminal intent.
I'm not sure how the former and latter differ.  I wonder if  some of
the lawyers on this list can explain the difference.
>
>
> --
> Wojtek
>
> "An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."
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