At 3:32 PM -0800 5/13/97, Declan McCullagh wrote:
A two-hour debate over whether KKK volunteers could be sued for spilling coffee on an 8-year old at a bake sale blew through millions of dollars in billable lobbyist-hours and prevented the House Judiciary Committee from voting on Rep. Bob Goodlatte's (R-VA) SAFE crypto bill today.
Somnolent yet somehow alert, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich) wasted an hour sparring with the avuncular Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Illinois) over the "Volunteer Protection Act," which insulates people volunteering for nonprofit organizations from civil liability.
But would that apply to the KKK, wondered Conyers? Is the KKK a registered 501(c)(3) organization under the IRS code? What about 501(c)(4) organizations? What if a KKK member decided to build houses for Habitat for Humanity?
Though this was presumably not the thrust of Declan's article, the notion that "some organizations are more insulated than others" (to paraphrase George Orwell) is itself pernicious and revealing about the nature of Washington. If indeed the KKK, or the Knights of Aryanism, or the Panthers of Color are 501(c) entities, which is quite possible, then *if course* they should get whatever status other 501(c) entities get! (The issue of state vs. Federal jurisdiction, and the "Lopez" case, is not what's at stake here.) When either the Federal or state government can use policy to reward certain types of organizations, e.g., the National Organization for Women, but punish other types of organizations, e.g., the Aryan White Peoples Organization, then all is lost. (But all was lost a long time ago.) This is actually just as important a story as whether Netscape and Microsoft will get their special export provisions while Americans face criminal penalties for exercise of basic Constitutional rights. Back to SAFE, though. Does this mean the bill is dead? Can we all breathe a sigh of relief for at least a few more months? --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."