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A Stitch in Haste

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine … But Haste Makes Waste

A collection of real-world libertarian, individualist and laissez-faire rants on law, economics, politics, culture and other current events
by an average, everyday lawyer & investment banker and part-time pop scholar.


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Entries Tagged as 'Privacy Issues'

D.C. to Commence NYC-Inspired Worthless Subway Searches

November 2nd, 2008 · No Comments

The District of Columbia's subway bureaucracy has announced that it will commence warrantless, suspicionless searches at subway entrances:
The program is modeled after one begun three years ago in New York that has withstood legal challenges. However, experts said it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of such searches, beyond assuring the public that police are [...]

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Tags: Fourth Amendment · Law Enforcement Abuses · New York City & State · Privacy Issues · Terror v. Civil Liberties · Updates

The Return of the Politician's Vindictive Blogger Subpoena

August 14th, 2008 · 1 Comment

To review: There is a First Amendment right not only to free speech, but also to anonymous speech, and especially to anonymous political speech. That has never been seriously doubted in our history, and is deeply entrenched in Supreme Court precedent. See, e.g., McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, 514 U.S. 334 (1995) ("Under our Constitution, [...]

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Tags: First Amendment - Speech · Law Enforcement Abuses · Metablogging · Privacy Issues

California Court Reverses Itself on "Homeschooling Ban"

August 11th, 2008 · No Comments

To review: A strange alliance of libertarians and theocrats emerged upon news that an intermediate California court had concluded that California law in fact barred homeschooling unless the parents employed or were themselves properly credentialed educators.
The theocrats were aghast because they are increasingly turning to (uncredentialed) homeschooling to ensure that their children are in fact [...]

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Tags: Children v. Parents; Homeschooling · Law · Privacy Issues

On Laptop Searches and Seizures at the Border

August 7th, 2008 · 2 Comments

"…it is constitutional, because the courts say it is constitutional…"
–Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, on the federal government's policy regarding search and seizure of electronic devices at border points.
Introduction
For some time now there has been a growing agitation, especially in the blawgosphere, over the increasing incidence of searches of laptops and other data storage devices [...]

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Tags: Fourth Amendment · Law Enforcement Abuses · Privacy Issues

"Comment Left Elsewhere" of the Day

July 31st, 2008 · No Comments

Reason laments the use by law enforcement of consent searches to evade the Fourth Amendment's requirement of probable cause to search or seize:
The other day, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois issued a report on "consent searches" that sometimes accompany traffic stops. Relying on data provided by local and state law enforcement agencies, the [...]

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Tags: Fourth Amendment · Law Enforcement Abuses · Privacy Issues

On the Housing Bill's "Credit Card Reporting" Provision

July 30th, 2008 · 1 Comment

There's been some panic-mongering in the blogs over a supposed provision in the housing bill requiring credit card processors to report (or be able to report) all, absolutely all, transactions to the IRS.
That is not correct. The bill includes a
de minimis exception for transactions of $10,000 or less and 200 transactions or less [that] applies [...]

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Tags: Law · Privacy Issues · Updates

Another Wonderful "Activist" Judge

July 14th, 2008 · No Comments

Unfortunately, he was the dissenter:
History tells us that it is not the fact that a constitutional right is at issue that portends the outcome of a case, but rather what specific right we are talking about. If it is free speech, freedom of religion, or the right to bear arms, we are quick to strike [...]

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Tags: Fourth Amendment · Law Enforcement Abuses · Privacy Issues

Suddenly Privacy Matters?

July 11th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Guess who wants your data records kept secret — very secret:
The New York Police Department is appealing an order to release an internal database of hundreds of thousands of street stops of pedestrians to civil rights advocates who want to analyze it for evidence of racial bias.

In a decision in May on the New York [...]

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Tags: Fourth Amendment · Law Enforcement Abuses · New York City & State · Privacy Issues

Big Viacom is Watching You Watching YouTube

July 3rd, 2008 · 1 Comment

The rules of discovery are not among my areas of expertise. I learned the basics of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure's Rule 34 as a 1L, and promptly forgot them all.
The libertarian rules of civil procedure, however, are most certainly within my ambit, and I can spot a violation a mile away.
Google will have [...]

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Tags: Law · Privacy Issues