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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2012-01-24, 19:39

Quote:
Originally Posted by billybobsky View Post
Again. It isn't info *from* you.
If it comes *from* your head, it is *from* you.

The problem with this whole situation is the failure to understand the original framing of the Constitution. Our founders wanted to insure that the government did not have the right or ability to force individuals into the admission of crimes they may or may not have committed. Thus, the framing of the 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution. The 4th Amendment was put in place to insure the government had no authority to enter your home/office, etc. unless a judge signed off on a warrant, which itself has to be based on supporting evidence. The fifth Amendment specifically protects the human mind! One cannot be compelled to enter **anything** into evidence which might serve to incriminate his/her self.

The wording states: "nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself". **Any** evidence that is entered serves as a "witness" for or against the accused. If I am compelled to release any information that "can be used against me", then my fifth Amendment right has been violated. Period.

Our modern, "progressive" society is "progressing" away from the Constitution toward an all-powerful government where the individual has less value than the collective, (and fewer rights as a result), and this case is just another glaring example of how powerful that urge has become.

By our "modern" standards, the judge is right because he says so, and because the judiciary now serves to protect the government, rather than the people. This woman is not being "protected" by the government, nor has her innocence been presumed. She is being forced at the point of a gun to reveal information that may serve to incriminate her, and this as a result of her presumed guilt.

When you are presumed to be innocent, the burden of proof falls on the government. They must make their case without your assistance, and the judge, jury and defense do all in their power to get you off, **unless** the government is capable of making its case…entirely on its own, and without any coercion of the judge, jury, or defense.

When you are presumed to be guilty, the burden of proof falls on the accused. You must make your case entirely without any help, and the judge, jury and prosecutor do all in their power to insure you do not get a fair trial, **unless** you have enough money to buy them all off. Coercion is everywhere.

The second system is precisely what the founders wished to prevent, and precisely why the 4th and 5th Amendments are worded the way they are. They LIMIT the power of the government. They do not GIVE it power.

Also, these ideas floating around that things inside your head somehow do not belong to you specifically are dangerous. My thoughts belong to me. They are my property, and they are protected by the 5th Amendment. As soon as you lose sight of that, you lose sight of everything that defines freedom.

Now, if this woman were being called as a witness against someone else, then the government would have the authority to order her to testify as to the information in her laptop. But she is not being ordered to testify against someone else, she is being ordered to testify against herself. To testify is to "serve as evidence or proof of something's existing or being the case", and by releasing what she has in her head, she is validating the existence of information that the government is, on its own, unable to prove exists. **That** is self incrimination.

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