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Comment by zaroth | Hacker News Reader

Amazing, this is literally the first paragraph in the ruling:

"Since the founding of the republic, the federal government has held broad authority to conduct searches at the border to prevent the entry of dangerous people and goods. In the 21st century, the most dangerous contraband is often contained in laptop computers or other electronic devices, not on paper. This includes terrorist materials and despicable images of child pornography."

Judge Korman is quoting Michael Chertoff, Searches Are Legal, Essential, USA Today, July 16, 2008, at A10.

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Child porn? So they are worried people are bringing child porn into the country through laptops? What the hell? I mean I'm not saying it's never going to happen, but what a ridiculous compromise to make.

It seems to me judges are starting to be co-opted by the corrupt power in US, too, lately. It's probably because many of them are starting to be given positions by corrupt administrations that are in favor of the surveillance state. This is also why I'm terrified about Obama naming any Supreme Court Justices by the time he leaves Office. The current Supreme Court is definitely not perfect, but I think so far they've erred on the side of privacy. I worry that balance will change if Obama gets to name 1 or 2 Justices.

As an example, ACLU had a talk at 30C3 where they mention Valerie Caproni, FBI's top lawyer until 2011, and how she was very focused on increasing surveillance capabilities for the FBI through "legal backdoors". And then she was recently named a federal judge in New York. I wouldn't be surprised if this was her giving this ruling, but just goes to show how good judges are starting to be replaced by bad ones, in favor of the surveillance and police state.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txRdOjgokQ4&feature=youtu.be&...

"Drug Warriors and Their Prey" examines the process by which the WoSD started to corrode civil liberties and how those tactics paralleled those used in the rise of the Nazis. Co-opting the judiciary to ensure those with the appropriate mindset or judicial philosophy was a key tactic - thus judges were able to make rulings supporting the bad policies of the executive branch, and so it all snowballs. Terrorists are only a revamp of "drug lord"; it's as if the WoSD could only take the authoritarians so far, so they switched to a new bogeyman. Given the advances in legalizing marijuana, the WoSD seems to be ending, but when will the war on terror ever end? It's going to be generations, because every innocent person killed by drones in the Middle East will be remembered by their family for generations - and they will never stop hating the US government.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drug-Warriors-Their-Prey-Police/dp/0...

Everything this book discusses is going on now, under the guise of combating terrorism. It is like there is a general blueprint for creating an authoritarian state, and it doesn't require a grand conspiracy, only the repeated short sighted actions of corrupt people with the same flawed worldview. It's like an unconscious conspiracy.

Do you REALLY think childporn is the reason? Really? I don't believe a single word that comes out of these blowhards' mouths anymore.

Contraband? Contraband?!??

If one wished to bring digital contraband into the US, why oh tell me why would anyone ever bring it physically over the border on a machine?!?

We invented a network of networks that makes this rather easier to securely do quite some years ago. :@ why would anyone think that contraband-based searches make sense here?

Just to be clear, I don't think USGOV's continued campaign to obliterate privacy is good.

However, if you do want to implement a total surveillance policy this isn't completely stupid, because it helps fill in one of the NSA's blind spots.

Meanwhile, people are using the US Postal Service to mail drugs across the country since forever.

Nobody concerned cares about your use of drugs, though. Exceptions are made if they need money for a program that Congress refuses to fund, though, when they'll make sure that their man's shipments of drugs will get into the country safely.

Three words: people are dumb.

Or there is another reason for such activities, and “contraband” is just a disguise.

Including those who make and enforce the laws.

I would have thought that this fairly obvious counterpoint would have been brought up by someone somewhere along the line before this decision was released, though.

Even more stupid is that the 1789 law all this is based on talks about the need to search ships to ensure no goods requiring tariffs sneak into the country. How that got bootstrapped into dangerous bits on a laptop is ridiculous.

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