Loose Letters Sink ... Freedom?

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Arrian
They're reading our email too, no doubt.

Isn't it the whole point of the Echelon programme?

[KrazyHorse]

Can somebody with some clue please explain to me what the **** legal status signing statements have?

[Zkribbler]

ZERO!

[KrazyHorse]

Has that ever been tested?

[Kuciwalker]

I'm pretty sure they have no inherent legal force. They just signify how the president interprets the bill or the constitutionality thereof. In many cases the courts give some deference to the interpretations of federal laws by the responsible agencies (e.g. the IRS's interpretation of tax statutes) but I don't know if they've extended that to the president's signing statemetns.

[Zkribbler]

Not to my knowledge -- it's a new phenomenon.


BTW: Am I the only one who doesn't fear for national security because a couple of history professors are writing letters to each other?

[Kuciwalker]

Signing statements aren't really new, they've existed for over a century, but they've proliferated since Reagan.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think he meant they are new in terms of the amount and scope they've taken on recently. Though none have gone to the Supreme Court, AFAIK.

[Last Conformist]

However, Mohan declined to outline what criteria are used to determine when a piece of personal correspondence should be opened, but said, ?obviously it?s a security-related criteria.?

America's security is in the hands of people who say "a criteria"? The end must be really fcuking nigh!

Reminds me; these days packages from the US come with a little warning glued on to the effect that the US Customs have the right to open my packages and break the contents without having to say sorry. Was it always thus, or did this originate with post-2001 paranoia?

[DinoDoc]

Hmm. That's really wierd because I haven't had any problems with packages from the UK, Finland, and Singapore.

[KrazyHorse]

They might be opening more packages today, but any customs agency has the right to open and inspect any package going to or from their territory.

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
Reminds me; these days packages from the US come with a little warning glued on to the effect that the US Customs have the right to open my packages and break the contents without having to say sorry. Was it always thus, or did this originate with post-2001 paranoia?

Or were they doing it before but now they're telling us about it so that we think we're safer? Where's that tinfoil smiley...

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
Reminds me; these days packages from the US come with a little warning glued on to the effect that the US Customs have the right to open my packages and break the contents without having to say sorry. Was it always thus, or did this originate with post-2001 paranoia?

Go ask you local customs authority - I'll bet that they'll say it's multiple century old tradition

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
They might be opening more packages today, but any customs agency has the right to open and inspect any package going to or from their territory.

There's a difference between claiming a right to opening stuff and claiming no responsibility for any damage they inflict on legitimate packages.

[KrazyHorse]

AFAIK, it's always been that way. They've never had responsibility for anything they mess up while they're inspecting stuff.



(and that's not just US customs)