At 5:17 AM +0000 8/10/00, Anonymous wrote:
>A new Ohio law kicked in today requiring anyone purchasing 5 or more kegs
>of beer to file a form with the Ohio Department of Public Safety, and wait
>5 days before picking up said beer.
>
>Worse, the law gives LEOs the right to search the beer-consumption site
>without first obtaining a search warrant!
>
>What next? Waiting period for kitchen knives? Purchase of a VCR gives
>implicit consent to pigs to search for kiddie porn without a warrant?
>
>This is nuts. What the hell good is all the strong crypto in the world
>when politicians get these sorts of laws passed?
This is not new. "There ought to be a law!" It's the American way.
It's why there are 173,492 laws on the books, and it's why nearly all
of us are felons.
The politicians have one and only one job: make laws to satisfy some
special interest groups.
In this case, it's parents who can't or won't raise their children
properly and are worried about "keg parties." With a lagniappe of
"Mothers Against Drunk Driving," politicians anxious to show that
they are "doing something," and cops who want more leeway in raiding
parties.
I doubt this "waiting period to buy beer" law will withstand
constitutional scrutiny. The commerce clause doesn't apply, and there
are no compelling public safety arguments for . (Sure, having a bunch
of 16-year-olds drinking five kegs of beer makes for some potential
excitement, but this applies to a bunch of 25-year-olds...ditto for
vodka, wine, etc. And the waiting period has nothing to do with the
consumption. It's not as if someone needs a "cooling off period"
because they otherwise might buy 5 or more kegs of beer in a
murderous impulse!)
However, to challenge this intrusion someone or some group will have
to arrange for a test case: an arrest, a lengthy trial period in the
lower courts, appeals to higher courts, and perhaps eventually a trip
the Supreme Court.
My radical view has become, over the past dozen or so years, that
anyone who passes a law which is overturned should face consequences
for the bad law. In many cases, death. In lesser cases, hard labor,
earning their keep. In the least significant cases, expulsion from
legislative and ministerial bodies.
--Tim May
--
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Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
