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The US government has taken upon itself the power to go thru safety deposit boxes at any time, for any reason, in recent years. They say it's necessary to "fig
by nirvana 14y ago
The US government has taken upon itself the power to go thru safety deposit boxes at any time, for any reason, in recent years. They say it's necessary to "fight terrorism" and "money laundering" (which is a "crime" whose definition is so flexible that you can get a conviction of anyone for it.)
Don't confuse what the constitution says with what the current "legal perspective" is. Under the constitution, most of the government is illegal.
Since the US Federal government doesn't follow the law, there's pretty much no limit to what they can do.
Hell, in the megaupload case they violated the laws of New Zealand and the USA, and still are not giving people the illegally seized data back.
- yuhong 14y ago>Since the US Federal government doesn't follow the law, there's pretty much no limit to what they can do. Other than rulings by the judge, of course.
- ebrenes 14y agoExcept judges are so easily swayed by sealed evidence about national security. And national security has been arbitrarily stretched to encompass all manner of things. They'll definitely try and make a case about terrorism and drug cartels affecting national security.
- dreamdu5t 14y agoCourt rulings can violate the law. Wickard v Filburn is a perfect example. Everyone can read Article 1 Section 8 and know that personal property does not fall under "interstate commerce." That doesn't stop the Supreme Court from ruling that way. In the same vein, we've now reached a point where the Supreme Court's decisions are increasingly (if not all) unconstitutional. The problem is that there's no 3rd party to settle a dispute with the government. If you and the government have a disagreement, the government decides who's right. If the Supreme Court ruled the sky was red, the sky would still be blue.
- nkurz 14y agoThey say it's necessary to "fight terrorism" and "money laundering" I'm not familiar with this. Do you have links to where this is said, or articles about this abuse? I searched a bit and came up with some similar things that were debunked (http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/safedeposit.asp http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/safedeposit.asp) but nothing about this specifically. Thanks!
- driverdan 14y ago[citation needed]