Kent Crispin wrote:

However, the issue is very complex. "The system" has a number of discretionary points -- variable sentencing regiems, time off for good behaviour, probation, parole -- all involve different levels of constraints on rights, all constitutional.

No doubt the laws resulting in people going to jail for the rest of their life for a "third felony" (i.e. - a $10.00 bad check in Texas) are "constitutional." After the (black, go figure...) person was given a life sentence for a $10.00 bad check, someone quoted the standard justification, "It's not a _perfect_ system, but its the best one we've got." (Hint: It was not the defendant who said this.) The rapist/murderers that we hear about being released because of a lack of prison space wave cheery good-byes to their marihuana smoking and bad-check writing pals as they drive away from the prison. And the way this relates to encryption is... ...the rapist/murderers of the future might well be waving goodby to the cryptographers, as well, since they rarely use encryption, and thus might well have a shorter sentence than their crypto-devil cellmate. TruthMonger