Legality of warrant canaries

Lodewijk andré de la porte l at odewijk.nl
Fri Oct 17 19:00:19 PDT 2014


2014-10-17 20:26 GMT+02:00 Bill St. Clair <billstclair at gmail.com>:

> I'm surprised that anybody obeys these gag orders. Better to just
> publicize the warrant far and wide, and make it known that you'll kill
> anybody who tries to enforce the gag order. Hey. Do you want to live
> forever?


Calm down there Spikey! Very wild west attitude. Proper governance and
peace still beat that. Contracts can be awesome!

I believe the best policy would be to determine your own belief.
> Assuming your belief is that gag orders are bullshit and canaries are
> stupid games, then:
> Inform council you will be taking such position, identify any legal
> basis/test such as first amandement / rights.
> Wait for warrant, order, NSL, FISA, exigence argument.
> Publish it, with/without whatever redactions you see fit, to
> whomever/all you see fit.
> See what happens.
> Nothing better than a stand up fight.
> (Never underestimate the power of the 1st).


Now, this is legit advice. FISA would likely wreck you though. The whole
design is pretty ripe for corruption. Thing is also, they genuinely believe
they're enhancing public safety and all that. If the Commander in Chief
thinks this is a good idea, who's to stop democracy from giving the people
what they want*?

Reg Canaries, I don't think they work. Why would they? It depends on the
phrasing of the gag order, of course, but indirectly saying you got had is
still saying it, so I agree with OP's lawyer.

* typically this somehow involves bloodshed, so I guess gag orders are a
kindness? Maybe Bill's at the right end. Sometimes I'm so happy I'm not in
a lesser democrazy.
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