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United States Legal and Political Issues
Last Updated 8:10am cdt 13 October 2001
Legal Issues
To Fight Police and/or other Public Abuse in the UNITED STATES
- Click the Links at the US Department of Justice
Below:
Important United States Justice Sites
The US Department of Justice
US
Civil Rights Division Activities and Programs
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division - Criminal Section -
Statutes Enforced
UNITED STATES NEWS & REPORTS:
Sandra Day O'Conner's "Dissenting Opinion"
in "ATWATER et al. v. CITY OF LAGO VISTA etal.
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the fifth circuit
No. 991408. Argued December 4, 2000 Decided April 24, 2001".
"Because the 'COURT's POSITION' is 'INCONSISTENT' with the 'EXPLICIT' guarantee of the 'FOURTH AMENDMENT', I dissent [Emphasis added]
US Court in Lubbock, TX strikes "down" illegal Texas
law which essentially declares [that]ALL "students" [Are]SUSPECIOUS of ILLEGAL CONDUCT [EVEN WITHOUT "cause" to believe so] and so they VIOLATED the [US] FOURTH AMENDMENT.
The Judge then states that:"Such an intrusion also comes at a great price to
citizens' constitutionally guaranteed rights to be
secure in their 'persons, houses, papers and effects,'"
[Federal Judge Sam R. Cummings] said in a ruling issued
late yesterday.
Click Here For America's Jailing of Women & Children
For a detailed and authoritative analysis on JAILING OF AMERICANS,
see also: CATO INSTITUTE's
"All Locked Up,"
Director of the Project on Criminal Justice Tim Lynch comments that
the number of incarcerated people surpassed 2 million for the first
time last year. Lynch writes that it took more than 200 years for
America to hold its first 1 million prisoners, but managed to
incarcerate the second million in only the past 10 years and warns
of a "prison industrial complex."
Read about America's Un-Constitutional Jailing of the People
in the CATO INSTITUTE's
"The Ominous Powers of Federal Law Enforcement"
by Timothy Lynch, The Cato Handbook for Congress:
106th Congress, 1999.
In part it states;"The sheer volume of modern law makes it impossible for
an ordinary
American household to stay informed—and yet the U.S. Department of
Justice vigorously defends the old legal maxim that ‘‘ignorance of the
law is no excuse.’’ That maxim may have been appropriate for a society
that simply criminalized inherently evil conduct, such as murder, rape,
and theft, but it is wholly inappropriate in a labyrinthine regulatory regime
that criminalizes activities that are morally neutral. It has been estimated
that the number of new enactments by legislative bodies ranging from
city councils to Congress is 150,000 per year. At that rate, a conscientious
citizen would have to study 410 laws each and every day all year round—
a full-time task, to say the least.
It is simply outrageous for the U.S. government to impose a legal duty
on every American citizen to ‘‘know’’ all of the mind-boggling rules and
regulations that have emanated from Washington over the years. The
106th Congress can remedy that unjust situation by passing a law that
would require U.S. attorneys to prove that regulatory violations are ‘‘willful’’
or, in the alternative, permit a good-faith belief in the legality of
one’s conduct to be pleaded and proved as a defense. The former rule is
already in place for our complicated tax laws—but it should also shield
unwary Americans from all of the other regulations.
See CATO INSTITUTE's Report On "How" the US Government and State Governments abuse US Civil Rights with "real-offense" sentencing in US National, State, and
Local & Municipal courts, in
"The Ominous Powers of Federal Law Enforcement"
by Timothy Lynch, The Cato Handbook for Congress: 106th Congress, 1999.
See also CATO INSTITUTE's:
Warrior Cops: The Ominous Growth of Paramilitarism in American Police Departments,"
by Diane Cecelia Weber. Briefing Paper No. 50. August 26, 1999. This tells the "whole" story and "meaning" of the Presidential Election of 1876, and how the United States was saved for 100 years from Military and Para-Military Police Forces.
Political Issues
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