Underestimating long-term consequences of cryptoanarchy

[Declan McCullagh]

On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 11:05:26AM -0700, Tim May wrote:
> We hold corporate employees liable for criminal acts. Why should 
> government employees be exempt from the same standard? And why should a 
> judge who is able to withstand pressures not to sentence corporate 
> employees to prison be unable to withstand similar pressures when it 
> comes to government employees?

Agreed... I'm not disagreeing about the problem, just the remedy. As
an example, Sen. Leahy thought his "morphed child porn" bill was
constitutionally problematic, but introduced it anyway:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03545.html

Same with debate over other bills -- "let the courts figure it out."
And that's assuming the 'critters are being nominally honest instead
of mouthing protect-the-children and other FUD throwaway lines.

If the Congress must approve federal judges, pay their salaries on an
annual basis, and has the constitutional power to limit the
jurisdiction of the federal judiciary, all I'm saying is that the
remedy of Congress passing a law to hold themselves criminally liable --
and having that law enforced by federal judges is not realistic given
the current state of our political system.

-Declan