[OT] Note to new-ish subscribers: you joined a mailing list, not a "group". (fwd)

[grarpamp]

On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 12:06 AM, Jim Bell <jamesdbell8 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> From: Philip Shaw <wahspilihp at gmail.com>
> On 21 Jan 2014, at 12:47 , J.A. Terranson <measl at 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.)