On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 12:06 AM, Jim Bell <jamesdbell8@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Philip Shaw <wahspilihp@gmail.com> On 21 Jan 2014, at 12:47 , J.A. Terranson <measl@mfn.org> wrote:
in specific cases). (For criminal matters, in many jurisdictions the government can simply refuse to prosecute cases against its agents and private prosecutions aren’t permitted in some places
Particularly regarding the US, in what places are such prosecutions or prosecutors permitted?
Telecom/NSA/*retroactive immunity* ring a bell? Retroactive acquittal is relatively OK - it is a good thing when applied to Retroactive indictment is the problem, and is far more dangerous.
Au contraire! A good argument can be made that retroactive acquittal (more precisely, in this case, retroactive civil immunity of corporations) is a violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says in relevant part:
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; _nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws_.
If people were supposed to be protected by the law in question, and once it was found out that the corporations were violating it (worse, doing that on behalf of the government!) then to give those corporations retroactive civil immunity amounts to denying the public that protection the law ostensibly was intended to provide.
The quote refers to the States doing the making/enforcing of abridging, the depriving, and the denying regarding fed law, or other state's laws as applicable. I believe telecom/nsa immunity happened only at the federal level, eg: fed wiretap law. (ie: The would be equal blanket protection of fed law was duly wiped out at the fed level, leaving suing AT&T in state court under state wiretap law as your only remaining option.)