Slashdot Mirror
Bill Banning Employer Facebook Snooping Introduced In Congress
suraj.sun writes "According to The Hill, 'The Social Networking Online Protection Act, introduced by Democratic Reps. Eliot Engel (N.Y.) and Jan Schakowsky (Ill.), would prohibit current or potential employers from demanding a username or password to a social networking account. "We must draw the line somewhere and define what is private," Engel said in a statement. "No one would feel comfortable going to a public place and giving out their username and passwords to total strangers. They should not be required to do so at work, at school, or while trying to obtain work or an education. This is a matter of personal privacy and makes sense in our digital world."' Ars adds, 'The bill would apply the same prohibitions to colleges, universities, and K-12 schools. ... Facebook has already threatened legal action against organizations who require employees to reveal their Facebook passwords as policy.'"
Maryland beat them to the punch, and other states are working on similar laws too. We'll have to hope the U.S. House doesn't kill this one like they did the last attempt. The difference this time is that the concept has its own bill, while its previous incarnation was an amendment to an existing bill about reforming FCC procedures.
Yeah that's kinda funny. Well no, might want to look at Obama in the last year, since he's gutted the constitution more than Bush did in 8 years.
And the state governments as well via Article Six. Government at all levels is bound by the Constitution.
The simple fact is the constitution does NOT limit the powers of the states except insofar as they conflict with specific provisions in the constitution. When the insurance mandate in Obamacare is ruled unconstitutional, that section of Obamacare (at least) will be invalidated. That will not affect Romneycare in Massachsetts. Why? Because the Federal Government is not given the power anywhere in the constitution to tell a citizen what insurance he MUST buy with HIS money. But a state can do so if it is permitted by the state constitution.
Demonstrably not true. Perhaps you should actually read about federal law or at least spend 20 seconds on Wikipedia before posting something so easily refuted. There are federal laws concerning murder for cases where state law would not apply such as for overseas military, on federal property, situations crossing state lines, involving federal officials, ambassadors, foreign officials, and numerous other circumstances.
Edge cases affecting a vanishingly small part of the population of the US. Looking for a pedantic debating point which does not contradict the point of the statement? The fact is if a normal citizen commits a typical murder in Massachusetts, that does not break any federal law.
Kind of a stupid argument since they all do have laws against murder.
So, other than the urge to call me stupid, you agree with the point?
Actually it specifically does stop states from limiting free speech via Article Six, specifically "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." Basically the First Amendment overrides any state law that contradicts it. If the Constitution was not applicable to states then it would be a useless document.
Logic. Use it. That article you are so fond of has no bearing on this matter. The constitution says CONGRESS shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech. Fine. So say a state makes a law abridging the freedom of speech. That does not violate the constitution in any way. Because of that pesky tenth amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." That is ALL powers not SPECIFICALLY prohibited.