Saturday, June 22, 2013

Something is rotten in Denmark

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war...  --Amendment V, United States Constitution

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, but an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.  --Amendment VI, United States Constitution

In other words, anyone charged, whether on a local level by local law enforcement is entitled to a trial by jury, a trial that is both speedy and public--not held in secret--in the district where whatever crime the accused is being charged with was committed.  
Federal prosecutors have filed a sealed criminal complaint against Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor... Washington Post
There's the first problem.  Snowden is not in active service, neither in the military, nor the militia.  He's an independent contractor--thus, he is entitled to a grand jury trial.  A public one, with all charges publicly available.  Not sealed.   By pursuing a sealed criminal complaint, Snowden's Constitutionally guaranteed rights are being violated by the government that is required by law to uphold the Constitution.

Big shock, right?
The complaint was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, a jurisdiction where Snowden’s former employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, is headquartered and a district with a long track record of prosecuting cases with national security implications....Snowden flew to Hong Kong last month after leaving his job at an NSA facility in Hawaii... Ibid.
...And here's violation number two.  The "crime" of shining a spotlight on the government's ass-raping of the Constitution with a sandpaper condom and no lube happened in Hawaii.  Not Virginia.

Again, big shock.  It's not like the federal government has the collective reading comprehension of a two year old.  If they did, they'd realize that their jobs are clearly defined and firmly limited in the Constitution, and that the rights of the people enumerated in the Bill of Rights are not rights granted by government, but by God.  If they had the reading comprehension of a retarded lemur, they'd realize that the Bill of Rights is there to inform the people of what the government is supposed to be legally restricted from doing to them.

Then again, I don't know more than a couple dozen people who have read the Constitution in its entirety.  And none of them is a government official.

2 comments:

  1. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war... --Amendment IV, United States Constitution

    This should be marked Amendment V

    In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, but an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. --Amendment V, United States Constitution

    This should be marked Amendment VI

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the corrections--I'll get that fixed.

      Delete

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