4 ms·

Isn't it part of common law that you have to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?". If so, how can it be legal to withhold information (

• jrockway 17y ago
  This expression is just convention, not something legally meaningful. The next part of that expression is "so help you God", which you can't be legally required to say. In many courts, the affirmation is just "Do you promise to tell me the truth?" As for "the whole truth", it's up to the other side's lawyer to ask you the right questions; if you answer all the questions truthfully while you're on the stand, that is your only legal obligation. (If the questions are directly about your crime, you also have the right to refuse to answer.) Anyway, if everyone were legally required to confess to crimes they committed, nobody would do that, and then the crime would be not admitting to a crime. By not admitting to that, ... the cycle continues, and with no evidence, there is no case against you.
• Semiapies 17y ago
  More or less. Unless someone at Google wants to go to jail, it's hard to get out of obeying a reasonably valid subpoena.
• mikeryan 17y ago
  This isn't a legal doctrine. Its just part of the swearing in process during a trial. More important is users "expectation of privacy" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectation_of_privacy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectation_of_privacy