At 1:21 AM 3/26/96, jim bell wrote:
While this may end up looking like another of Jim Bell's odd
Yes, you got this part right.
interpretations, the only section in the US Constitution that I see as potentially REQUIRING a person's testimony is the section (can't recall which) which says that a defendant must have a process to compel the appearance of witnesses in his favor. The Constitution, as far as I see, says nothing about requiring people to appear for the PROSECUTION.
IANACS (I am not a Constitutional scholar), but it is clear that the Constitution, being a relatively short document, is a _framework_, a kind of "generator," for establishing additional legislation. This is, obviously enough, why there is _legislative branch_, after all. Jim's argument (?) could be turned in all sorts of ways: "Your Honor, there is nothing I can find in the Constitution that says I can't drive on the left side of the road at 125 miles per hour." Indeed, there is nothing laying out detailed traffic laws. And so on. That the Fifth Amendment attempts to make it clear that a defendant shall not be compelled to give testimony which may tend toincriminate himself (lotsa gotchas, as expected) clearly--to me if not to Jim Bell--implies that a "legal system" involving testimony, search warrants, subpoenas, juries, verdicts, appeals, etc., is implied by various parts of the Constitution. (I could search one of the many online copies of the Big C for details, but I'm sure you all, except perhaps Jim, get it.) I'm no apologist for Big Government, of course, so I think we have vastly too many laws in the U.S. But I don't think naive arguments saying that a court cannot call witnesses by due process because the Constitution does not specifically have a clause saying this is the case is going to be very helpful or persuasive. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."