At 07:42 PM 9/4/00 -0400, Tim May wrote: At 4:38 PM -0400 9/4/00, Steven Furlong wrote: Ray Dillinger wrote:

...

There are good reasons for the governments of the world (even Italy's, for our Italian friend who is insulted that we don't write enough about Italy) not to want to test the limits of the law: adhocracies like ambiguity.

What about the right to remain silent? How does the Fifth Amendment impinge on this issue?

A criminal defendant has the right to remain silent. He cannot be compelled to tell where evidence is located. He cannot be compelled to testify against himself.

Although this list is mainly focused on the social implications of crypto and privacy. It has also been a frequent forum for libertarian ideals: like smaller government. There can be no greater lever to reduce the size of government than "...to cut off its oxygen," that is revenue. One of the better examples of the intersection of the Fifth Amendment and taxes involves W4 and 1040 U.S. federal tax forms. For many years legislators have publicly maintained that we have a nation of voluntary tax compliance. (Yet woe onto those who decide not to volunteer.) Widely accepted federal court rulings consider statements on these tax forms as testimony (not evidence) in a court of law. Since under our Constitution one cannot be compelled to testify against himself it seems reasonable that one cannot be compelled to submit to endorsing either form. Only one case I know of (Conklin vs. U.S.) has been adjudicated on this issue. Conklin won but the case. The federal court ruled that submission of tax forms was voluntary, but the ruling was suppressed by a legal procedure which allow courts to selectively deny its citing in subsequent cases. Adhocracies like ambiguity Napster has tapped into a broad reservoir of resentment and resistance to paying too much for music. I believe all U.S. libertarians on the list should be considering how a high profile test case of the constitutionality of the U.S. federal tax system might tap into a similar disdain for taxation and achieve substantially more constraint of government encroachment on civil liberties than our valiant crypto coding efforts. ks