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Court: Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional

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Re: Court: Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional

#591
post #492

Best thing is to just not have anything to do with the US of A. Death penalty, loaded guns everywhere, a general attitude of being the masters of the world which leads to things like suspicionless searches. No, thanks. I think the best would be if more people would actually stop dealing with the USA. Its becoming a trend. I once turned down an invitation to a conference in Hawai, and guess what, I was not alone.

And worse - no proper support for Metric!

By far the greatest sin

Re: Court: Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional

#592

Best thing is to just not have anything to do with the US of A. Death penalty, loaded guns everywhere, a general attitude of being the masters of the world which leads to things like suspicionless searches. No, thanks. I think the best would be if more people would actually stop dealing with the USA. Its becoming a trend. I once turned down an invitation to a conference in Hawai, and guess what, I was not alone.

But you realize that ordinary people don't have a large choice in this right? We can vote and vote and vote, but until the majority wins, and helps facilitate change, we are stuck with how people perceive our country as well as some of the harsh realities of living here. I feel like you insulted me for the actions of my country. Isn't this how racism and hate is spread? I'm now not worth knowing and should be shyed a…

I think most reasonable people know about North Korea, etc. That's not a benchmark

Re: Court: Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional

#593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a recent court case about this (Rehaif v. U.S) where the Supreme Court made a decision about the law making it a felony to knowingly possess a gun in the US while here illegally. The prosecutor said "knowingly" just refers to the gun possession, but Rehaif's lawyer said it should refer to knowingly possessing the gun and knowing that you weren't in the country legally (Rehaif claimed that he hadn't read an…

> Another thing that I just learned it is actually still illegal to borrow a gun at a shooting range if you have a non-immigrant visa (unless you have a hunting license). Huh; do you have a citation for this? I used to bring scientists from other countries to the shooting range for the cultural experience, and almost brought a pal from Europe hunting a year or two ago (on my license). Never realized I might have been…

The actual law is here Title 18, Section 922, g(5)(B): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/922 I would guess that it's not enforced very often.

If your friend was visiting from a European country that didn't require a visa to visit the US (most of them) you'd be in the clear.

Some discussion for non-immigrant visas about halfway down this article: https://reason.com/2019/01/12/illegal-aliens-guns-and-strict...

Re: Court: Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional

#594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with your point, I need to point out that the Declaration of Independence generally isn't used in case law.

It seems like it would provide quite a bit of relevant background to originalist interpretations of the constitution, and those are fairly common.

Originalism as a legal doctrine means looking at the original meaning of words in the Constitution. It explicitly rejects as too wishy-washy trying to figure out the intent behind laws from other writings and using that to decide what they mean.

> Some people would give the Declaration greater weight, as a reflection of values that inspired the Constitution, and thus of values that we should read into the Constitution even if they are not expressly there in the Constitution's text. But I am skeptical. The two documents are very different. The Declaration is fundamentally a rhetorical document, meant to persuade the world -- and more immediately and significantly, to persuade wavering Americans -- that the revolutionaries' cause was just. The Constitution is fundamentally a legal document, meant to spell out a form of government to which Americans would be bound, and by which that government would be bound. Perhaps the Constitution implemented the rhetorical ideals of the Declaration, but perhaps it didn't (and perhaps it was the worse for that). The way to see if the Constitution implemented the ideals of the Declaration is to look at the Constitution's text, not to assume that it did.

https://originalismblog.typepad.com/the-originalism-blog/201... (Note: Blog by UC San Diego prof.)

Re: Court: Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional

#595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the guns were removed, you'd be more safe, as if there are no guns your chance of shooting goes down from "very rare" to 0.

That is patently false.. By definition criminals do not follow the letter of the law, a good example being that murder is already illegal. Strangely enough though, it still happens. Weird right? So would it also make sense that even if guns are illegal that maybe some bad actors would still have and use them in an illegal manner? Disarming law abiding citizens is all you're doing. Full stop.

Hunt, catch, and disarm the criminals too, like murderers. Then when we catch the criminals with them, we take the guns and destroy them. Illegal things happen but over time with proper enforcement they happen less. Such effort requires sustained unified community effort and political commitment without playing games for votes and lobby dollars, which is the most unrealistic and impossible thing of this whole scenario.

If we can keep nuclear weapons out of criminal's hands we can keep anything out of criminal's hands, it's just a matter of doing it correctly.

Re: Court: Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional

#596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why people always discount suicides among gun deaths, as if suicides only happen to "other people". It's true that you can limit your gun risk by being white/urban/middle-class/mentally healthy, but these are not advantages available to everyone. There's a lot of victim-blaming in some of these comments, which glosses over the fact that plenty of infants and toddlers die from guns. Gun deaths in to…

> I don't understand why people always discount suicides among gun deaths, as if suicides only happen to "other people". Probably because the interesting statistic is not "gun deaths" but rather "fatal gun-related accidents" and "homicides" (with or without a gun involved). Suicides don't just "happen"; there is no "risk of suicide" which could be affected by the presence or absence of any particular tool. If you don…

> there is no "risk of suicide" which could be affected by the presence or absence of any particular tool.

This is wrong though. Reducing access to means and methods is one of the best ways to prevent suicide and we see drops in rates of suicide whenever we see changes to a commonly used method.

Two of the best documented examples are when the UK changed from coal gas to natural gas, and when the UK introduced catalytic converters.

Obviously reducing access to means and methods is not the only thing we should be doing to reduce death by suicide. But it is an important part of the package of measures.

Re: Court: Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional

#597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Supreme Court opinion in DC v. Heller explains why that clause was included: >The Second Amendment is naturally divided into two parts: its prefatory clause and its operative clause. The former does not limit the latter grammatically, but rather announces a purpose. The Amendment could be rephrased, “Because a well regulated Militia is necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and…

And to think that Scalia considered himself an originalist! I guess that only applied when it was convenient to him :/

This is originalism as clearly supported by the numerous references to contemporary language, other writings of the authors, and comparison to other language in the Constitution. Have you read the opinion?

Re: Court: Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional

#598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is devoid of argument.

So is yours.

Indeed, because I'm not arguing any position in the debate, but offering an observation whose truthfulness anyone can judge on their own.

The parent, on the other hand, was responding to someone in an attempt to prove them wrong. By not saying anything that engaged with what the grandparent said, they failed at that.

So I know what I am, but what are you?

Re: Court: Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional

#599
post #572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a US citizen. Most of his points are valid. Guns fucking everywhere is a problem. Lots of Americans think so. Yes, we absolutely execute people -- and our criminal justice system is a completely sham, especially if you're not white and rich. Oh, and God save you from our health care economics. If I weren't American, I'd absolutely never come here. In fact, I am American, and I'm actively researching ways to estab…

Is it really that bad though. We like painting a negative picture, because we want the US to improve. But on the human freedom index the US is ranked 17 alongside Sweden. The US has problems, systemic and cultural problems that should be fixed. But your risk of getting shot in a mass shooting is low.

"But your risk of getting shot in a mass shooting is low. "

But absurdly HIGHER than say, in Sweden. And most gun violence isn't mass shootings.

Plus, there's the ever-present specter of medical bankruptcy.

Re: Court: Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional

#600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a US citizen. Most of his points are valid. Guns fucking everywhere is a problem. Lots of Americans think so. Yes, we absolutely execute people -- and our criminal justice system is a completely sham, especially if you're not white and rich. Oh, and God save you from our health care economics. If I weren't American, I'd absolutely never come here. In fact, I am American, and I'm actively researching ways to estab…

>Guns fucking everywhere is a problem. Please elaborate. I have a house in an open carry state, and I rarely seen anyone actually carrying. Even as a gun owner by far the most likely place I'm going to see a gun is on the hip of a law enforcement officer.

Please consult literally any source on gun-related violence, injury, and death in the US vs. any other modern, liberal democracy.
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