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Comment by dllthomas | Hacker News Reader

"The government isn't allowed to force you to lie"

Is that actually the case?

If I set up a contract with you saying that I will not submit to any government subpoenas, and then the government subpoenas me, can I refuse, because "the government cannot force you to break contracts?" (The answer is No.)

If you want to practice civil disobedience, do it, and be straightforward about it. If Rsync.net were really to try to exercise this silly clause, it would be a giant distraction from what I presume is their actual complaint.

I more or less agree with the second half of your post.

Regarding the first part, I've seen a couple places the claim that the government can't force people to lie - I don't know of any support for this, but also haven't conclusively heard that it's not the case (certainly not from a lawyer). I'm highly skeptical, but wanting to know what support the people claiming this think they have. The fact that you can name another potential constraint that doesn't hold is irrelevant, isn't it?

There are variety of careers and situations where falsehoods are encouraged and necessary.

For sure. But there's (potentially) a difference between being employed by the government in a role that requires lying and being forced as an ordinary citizen to lie. That said, I don't actually know about anything that prevents the latter.

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