There is no ban on publishing information on cloning, "just" a ban on the activity.
Spin doctor bullshit. Without the research there isn't anything to publish. By banning the basic research we would in fact be banning the publishing of the results of that scientific research.
This is a more significant difference than you let on: if the research is done abroad, it can be published here. To the extent that one can theorize without experimenting, that too can be done here.
Not at all. Equating swinging of ones fist in a empty field and swinging it into somebodies nose and then taking that supposition as justification to ban fist swinging *is* most certainly unconstitutional. Furthermore, robbery
Congress has the power to choose whether to ban acts when the cause a harm (fists that connect to federal noses), or just to ban acts whether or not they cause harms (sending threats to government officials; broadcasting without a license on an unused frequency). Like it or not, there is no question that most of these bans -- including the cloning ban -- are constitutional under the commerce and other powers, the copyrights clause notwithstanding. PS. I killfiled this guy ages ago on the grounds of rudeness, general unpleasantness, and especially a complete and utter incomprehension about how the law in this country operates. It is as if someone once read some software company's publicity about how easy it is to operate their software and concluded they should therefore be able to write programs in any language. Since someone forwarded me this post, I'm replying to it, but I doubt I'll bother doing so in the future. I entered this thread because Tim May made some comments; I respect his writing and I think other people probably do too. As a result, it seemed important to offer some basic doctrine as a response. Note, again, that I'm not expressing a view on the MERITS of the legislation, just one law professor's view on whether courts would be likely to uphold it if it passes. A. Michael Froomkin +1 (305) 284-4285; +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax) Associate Professor of Law U. Miami School of Law froomkin@ no spam please P.O. Box 248087 http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/ Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA It's warm here.