Category Archives: Law

Unlocking Cellphones Becomes Illegal Saturday | TechNewsDaily.com

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You idiots asked for it.

The clock to unlock a new mobile phone is running out.

In October 2012, the Librarian of Congress, who determines exemptions to a strict anti-hacking law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), decided that unlocking mobile phones would no longer be allowed. But the librarian provided a 90-day window during which people could still buy a phone and unlock it. That window closes on January 26.

via Unlocking Cellphones Becomes Illegal Saturday | TechNewsDaily.com.

Wayne LaPierre – NRA Believes Americans Have the Right to Own “Assault Rifles” and “High Capacity Magazines” | The Truth About Guns

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Words do have meaning, Mister President. And those meanings are absolute, especially when it comes to our Bill of Rights.

Don’t take it from me. Take it from former Democratic U.S. Senator and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. Fifty years ago, after he had been appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, liberal Justice Hugo Black said, and I quote: “There are ‘absolutes’ in our Bill of Rights, and they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant and meant their prohibitions to be ‘absolutes.’” End quote.

Let me read that again. “There are ‘absolutes’ in our Bill of Rights, and they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant and meant their prohibitions to be ‘absolutes.’”

Justice Black understood the danger of self-appointed arbiters of what “freedom” really means — like President Barack Obama — who want to redefine freedom, whittle away freedom and infringe upon the freedoms that we the people reserve to ourselves.

They’re God-given freedoms. They belong to us as our birthright. No government ever gave them to us and no government can ever take them away.

Mister President, you may not like that. You may wish it were some other way. But you can’t argue that it isn’t true.

In that, the American people are, and will always remain, utterly absolute! We are not people to be trivialized, marginalized or demonized as unreasonable. We’re not children who need to be parented or misguided “bitter clingers” to guns and religion.

We get up every day, we work hard to pay our taxes, we cherish our families and we care about their safety. We believe in living honorably, and living within our means.

We believe we deserve, and have every right to, the same level of freedom that our government leaders keep for themselves, and the same capabilities and same technologies that criminals use to prey upon us and our families. That means we believe in our right to defend ourselves and our families with semi-automatic technology.

We believe that if neither the criminal nor the political class is limited by magazine capacity, we shouldn’t be limited in our capacity either.

We believe in our country. We believe in our Bill of Rights. And we believe in our Second Amendment, all of our Second Amendment.

via Wayne LaPierre, NRA Believes Americans Have the Right to Own “Assault Rifles” and “High Capacity Magazines” (Full Text) | The Truth About Guns.

From The Atlantic: 8 Ways to Stop Overzealous Prosecutors From Destroying Lives

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In the wake of Aaron Swartz’s suicide, this issue is seeing some light:

 

Federal prosecutors are facing unusual scrutiny of the tremendous power that they wield after the suicide of Aaron Swartz. The open-Internet activist was threatened with decades in prison if he contested charges that he used MIT’s computer network to illegally download millions of academic papers. Senator John Cornyn is pressing for an investigation into whether the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston inappropriately targeted the 26-year-old Reddit co-founder. Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, wants to look into the case too. Said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, “I think the Department of Justice was way out of line on the case.”

Perhaps so.

But as legal scholar Orin Kerr points out, the hardball tactics used against Swartz are “business as usual in federal criminal cases around the country — mostly with defendants who no one has ever heard of and who get locked up for years without anyone much caring.” The need for systemic reform to prevent already widespread abuses are what makes a new paper by University of Tennessee Law Professor Glenn Reynolds so timely. Its title, “Ham Sandwich Nation: Due Process When Everything Is a Crime,” alludes to a common saying –that a good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. There’s truth in that quip, Reynolds argues, and that’s problematic: Grand juries are supposed to meaningfully check overzealous prosecutors. “Though people suspected of a crime have extensive due process rights in dealing with the police, and people charged with a crime have even more extensive due process rights in court, the actual decision whether or not to charge a person with a crime is almost completely unconstrained,” he writes. “Yet, because of overcharging and plea bargains, that decision is probably the single most important event in the chain of criminal procedure.”

via 8 Ways to Stop Overzealous Prosecutors From Destroying Lives – Conor Friedersdorf – The Atlantic.

Posted in: Law |

Gun Seizures

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There’s been a lot of talk about taking guns from those with mental issues and those with a criminal background. I think the concept is sound, but I’m concerned that the execution can leave a lot of room for abuse. I don’t think I want to have a bureaucrat determine whether I can own a gun or not.

I was reading up on gun seizure law, and came across some of the existing regulations. Connecticut law seems to be the most appropriate to note. If there’s a complain about a gun owner making threats, police can investigate and determine if a warrant to seize weapons. A judge must hold a hearing within fourteen days to determine whether the police can keep the weapons or must return them. Seems pretty reasonable.

The most worrisome thing is the mentality that “SOMETHING MUST BE DONE”, and then turning to the federal government to do something. Well, the government can try to outlaw evil, but it can’t prevent it. Demanding instant action and trusting the government to fix it is a recipe for unintended consequences.

Burglars steal two guns from another home listed on controversial weapons permit map published by newspaper, just days after similar break-in | Mail Online

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Thieves ransacked a house that features on the gun map published by the Journal News, just days after another home on the list was also targeted.

Burglars broke into the house in New City, New York, on Wednesday and pried open two safes, before leaving with another one.

The criminals escaped with two handguns, two pistol permits, cash, savings bonds and jewelry. The firearms were in the stolen safe.

My question is what legal obligation does the Journal News have? Are they accessories? Are they liable to civil action?

via Burglars steal two guns from another home listed on controversial weapons permit map published by newspaper, just days after similar break-in | Mail Online.