Here they are in the message body for those on listservs that strip attachments. The first two are replacements. The second two are additions of a sentence, the first of which is surrounded by square brackets. ______
*Juries* We support reforms to enable juries to more effectively protect rights from official misconduct and abuse. Juries A. Trial Juries Issue: Current judicial practice has severely restricted the ability of juries to protect rights of parties. In criminal cases, defendants are being charged with offenses not authorized by a statute or a constitution, or not applicable to the facts of the case. Defense counsel are threatened with sanctions or disbarment for attempting to make certain arguments, or present those arguments to the jury, and many are appointed by the court and may not represent the rights of the accused.. Principle: Juries should be fully informed of the legal issues in a case, including those offered by intervenors or amici curiae. Solutions: In all cases to which the government is a party or has an interest, it shall be a reversible error: 1. For a bench to fail to inform, or impede the parties or their attorneys from informing, the jurors of their common law duty to review the legal decisions of the bench, as well as judge the facts, in reaching a general verdict, and to acquit a criminal defendant, or to find against the government in a civil trial, whenever they deem the charge or statute to be unconstitutional, unjust or oppressive. 2. For a bench to impede making arguments on motions and pleadings in the presence of the jury, providing the jury with copies of all motions and pleadings, and having access to an adequate law library. 3. For a bench to impede the presentation of argument or evidence of official misconduct that may infringe on the rights of the parties. 4. For a bench to impose sanctions for making allegedly "frivolous" arguments. 5. For a bench to exclude from jury service any person on the basis of his or her opinions on issues of law. Transitional Actions: 1. Require all issues of law to be argued in the presence of the jury. 2. End the practice in capital cases of excluding jurors who are opposed to the death penalty (referred to as "death qualification"), which denies capital defendants the right to a trial before a jury representative of community values. B. Grand juries Issue: Grand juries in many jurisdictions are presented too many bills of indictment to do justice to each, preventing them from investigating complaints of official misconduct, and they too often function as rubber stamps for public prosecutors, who often impede access of private persons to bring complaints to the grand jury. Principle: Grand juries must function independent bodies, to not only screen complaints and authorize prosecutions, but to supervise the actions of officials. Solutions: 1. Establish grand juries for smaller jurisdictions, probably less than 30,000 people, as required to enable them to devote an average of at least four hours to each bill of indictment, and at least half their time to investigating official actions. 2. Prevent appointment of biased persons by drawing the members by a random process from the community. 3. Remove impediments to access by private parties. 4. Inform grand jurors of their power to exclude any person, including public prosecutors, from their sessions. 5. Require grand juries, on bills of indictment, to find not only sufficiency of evidence but constitutionality of the charge and jurisdiction of the court. 6. Remove impediments to private criminal prosecutions, by allowing grand juries to appoint private criminal prosecutors by returning bills of indictment to them instead of to a public prosecutor. Transitional Action: 1. Provide grand jury manuals covering all the above points to all grand juries. 2. Repeal any statute or judicial rule that impedes private criminal prosecutions. ______ *Sovereign and Official Immunity* We favor an immediate end to the current practices of using the doctrines of "sovereign immunity" and "official immunity" to prevent holding the state or officials accountable for their actions. Issue: The government is often invoking the doctrine of "sovereign immunity" not just to require that money judgments be paid only out of funds appropriated for that purpose, but to prevent trials from being conducted. It is also invoking the doctrine of absolute or qualified "official immunity" to prevent officials from being sued when there is a question of whether his actions were authorized by law. Federal courts often seize jurisdiction of state criminal cases against federal agents and summarily dismiss them because the agent was "on duty" even if the specific actions were unlawful. Principle: Individuals must have legal standing to seek remedies for violation of public rights without having suffered personal injury, including for declaratory and injunctive relief, and for writs of habeas corpus, quo warranto, and other common law writs, in the name of the people. Solutions: Establish the interpretation of the Ninth Amendment to recognize the right to a legal presumption of non-authority, and standing of any person to petition for the common law writs in the name of the people. Transitional Action: Submit all questions whether a state or federal court has jurisdiction to a grand jury. Submit all questions of whether an official was acting with the authority of law to a jury. ______ *The Right to Privacy* The individual's rights to privacy, property, and to speak or not to speak should not be infringed by the government. The Right to Privacy The Issue: Privacy protections have been eroded gradually over many years. The Social Security Number has become a universal ID number, causing rampant and massive identity theft. Government routinely keeps records on the bank accounts, travel plans, and spending habits of law-abiding civilians, for no other reason than they "might" commit a crime in the future. The Principle: The individual's right to privacy, property, and right to speak or not to speak should not be infringed by the government. The government should not use electronic or other means of covert surveillance of an individual's actions or private property without the consent of the owner or occupant. Correspondence, bank and other financial transactions and records, doctors' and lawyers' communications, employment records, and the like should not be open to review by government without the consent of all parties involved in those actions. Private contractual arrangements, including labor contracts, must be founded on mutual consent and agreement in a society that upholds freedom of association. On the other hand, we oppose any use of such screening by government or regulations requiring government contractors to impose any such screening. Solutions: We support the protections provided by the Fourth Amendment and oppose any government use of search warrants to examine or seize materials belonging to innocent third parties. We oppose all restrictions and regulations on the private development, sale, and use of encryption technology. We specifically oppose any requirement for disclosure of encryption methods or keys, including the government's proposals for so-called "key escrow" which is truly government access to keys, and any requirement for use of government-specified devices or protocols. We also oppose government classification of civilian research on encryption methods. If a private employer screens prospective or current employees via questionnaires, polygraph tests, urine tests for drugs, blood tests for AIDS, or other means, this is a condition of that employer's labor contracts. Such screening does not violate the rights of employees, who have the right to boycott such employers if they choose. We oppose the issuance by the government of an identity card, to be required for any purpose, such as employment, voting, or border crossing. We further oppose the nearly universal requirement for use of the Social Security Number as a personal identification code, whether by government agencies or by intimidation of private companies by governments. [We support interpretation of the Ninth Amendment to recognize a right to a legal presumption of nonauthority, enabling any person to petition in the name of the people and get a fair hearing on such common law writs as habeas corpus and quo warranto, to require official action be terminated for which authority is not proved, and removal of officials who lack authority, and to have such petitions be decided by a jury]. Transitional Action: We also oppose police roadblocks aimed at randomly, and without probable cause, testing drivers for intoxication and police practices to stop mass transit vehicles and search passengers without probable cause. So long as the National Census and all federal, state, and other government agencies' compilations of data on an individual continue to exist, they should be conducted only with the consent of the persons from whom the data is sought. We oppose government regulations that require employers to provide health insurance coverage for employees, which often encourage unnecessary intrusions by employers into the privacy of their employees. ______ *The War on Drugs* Principle: We interpret the Commerce Clause and Necessary and Proper Clause of the U.S. Constitution not to authorize criminal prosecutions. The Commerce Clause authorizes only regulation, not prohibition, of tangible commodities, the title and possession of which has been conveyed from a vendor outside a state to a buyer inside that state. It does not include primary production, manufacturing, possession, use, or disposal, nor the activities of those engaged in commerce, nor other things that might have a substantial effect" on commerce. The Necessary and Proper Clause only authorizes actions needed to make an effort authorized by a delegation of a power, not to get a result for which the power might be exercised. No amendment has been ratified authorizing present federal criminal drug statutes. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Constitution Society 7793 Burnet Road #37, Austin, TX 78757 512/374-9585 www.constitution.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Yahoo! Groups gets a make over. See the new email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/XISQkA/lOaOAA/yQLSAA/KlSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
