Slashdot Mirror
Government Asks Court to Keep ID Arguments Secret
RobXiii writes " CNN has a story on privacy advocate John Gilmore (Co-founder of the EFF) taking the federal government to court, to stop the requirement of ID for in country flights. In an ironic twist, the U.S. Department of Justice is asking the court to keep its argument for the secret law secret. How are we supposed to follow a law when the law itself can't be disclosed?"
First rule of the law: You do not talk about the law.
Second rule of the law: You DO NOT talk about the law.
Free XBox, PS2
Please do not post any responses to this article.
It's a secret.
> for specific reasons. Persons question the redaction of this post or its original contents or its existence or <> may be held without trial. Please read the next post and forget about this one.>
"I refuse to obey a law that I cannot read".
Well that would certainly get the illiterates off the hook in all kinds of situations.... :-)
How are we supposed to follow a law when the law itself can't be disclosed?
Errr... ummm... trial and error? (pun intended)
Of course, "more intense" is just airline speak for "bend over, please".
I'll tell you... but I have to post as an AC to avoid my identity being published and being the target of /. hitmen. ... It's the government. They don't want us to read ./ anymore. We're gaining intelligence and beginning to think for ourselves!
The government contends its court arguments should be sealed from public view and heard before a judge outside the presence of Gilmore and his attorneys.
We also have a secret law that secret hearings are fair and just. Anyone who disagrees with our secret policies will go to a secret jail.
Ah, but then the cheap arline would be a threat to national security because a terrorist could slip on and bomb/fly it into a building.
Oh, that would never happen. Take off that tinfoil hat you paranoid right-wing nut-job.
Thats good, nobody reads dotslash anyway.
...uhh nevermind.
"You are under arrest, please come along quietly."
"I haven't done anything! What am I being charged with?"
"We can't tell you."
"What about my Miranda rights?"
"Ok, you may or may not be under arrest."
"I want to contact my lawyer."
"Sorry, where you're going to be held no lawyers are permitted."
"What?!? You can't do that!"
"Ah, but we can and have, it's for the good of the country, you'll understand."
"Oh, well, if it's for the good of the country... but..."
"But what?"
"The country is not the government, but people like me, how can the people be arrested and tried in secrecy for their own good?"
"You ask too many question *fwit*"
"What did you just do?"
"I played the Patriot Card, by questioning the policies and actions of the goverment you're patriotism is now officially called into doubt!"
"Unbelievable!"
"It's a brave new world."
"I'll still need to let my family know I've been arrested."
"Sorry, can't let you do that, either, it might endager their patriotism."
"How?"
"If they feel the same way about this as you, they may call us into question, thus jeopardizing their standing as patriots."
"Um, how is that again?"
"It's for their own good, you see? We need to take you in and not have our policies and procedures called into question."
"Well why am I being taken in?"
"Ok, just between you and me, you'll probably be charged with possible subversion."
"For what?"
"For questioning your arrest."
"Ah."
"Come along now, we have a nice prison to keep you in."
"It's not one of those horrid places, is it?"
"Oh, no, this is run by Halliburton, it's very nice."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
If my name is not on one of the secret lists the government maintains how is showing my ID with my real name going to stop me from doing anything? I'm not a list!
But how else could we be sure you're not Ted Kennedy?
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Dean Vernon Wormer: As of now they're on Double SECRET Probation!
Then explain the protester cage at the Democratic Convention.
Yeah, right.
*in homer voice*
Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaadup!
Y'know, you blow up one sun and suddenly everyone expects you to walk on water.
Our leaders proudly announced that European Citizens no longer need passports to travel between European states.
Of course you do need to prove you are a European Citizen to take advantage of this new right.
Guess which document you use to do that?
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Oh that Kafka, he's a scary one.
Considering he's been dead for 80 years, I think it would be damned scary to have Franz Kafka knock on my door in the middle of the night!
Hello. Please vote for John Kerry, as he will fire John Ashcroft.
If you honestly think it can get worse, then fine, these things happen. But please let's not keep Ashcroft in office, k?
[o]_O
"Hell, imagine if our President had to recite the law once a year."
oh god no. Just imagining the things that would get messed because he mangled a sentence or two makes me shiver.