Posted on 11/19/2019 3:49:13 AM PST by marktwain
On 12 November, 2019, another semi-retired District Judge, in the Western District of Washington (Seattle), continued the judicial resistance against the Trump administration and the rule of law. Senior Judge Lasnik was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1998.
The Judge, Robert S. Lasnik, ruled the Department of State violated administrative procedure by deciding the ability of individuals to make simple small arms, already widely available, was not a critical defense item in the expansive International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) regulations.
The Department of State had reached this decision as part of a long running lawsuit brought by Defense Distributed on First and Second Amendment grounds. The temporary order allowing Defense Distributed to publish and distribute its computer code was part of a settlement of the lawsuit, awaiting permanent regulations.
Several Democrat state attorney generals then filed the current lawsuit in the Western District of Washington (Seattle) on ideological grounds, claiming speculative and future damages, to prevent the court approved settlement with Defense Distributed and the Second Amendment Foundation, from going into effect.
Judge Lasnik ignored reality to make this ideological policy decision against the Department of State.
The code in question is, and has been, already widely distributed on the Internet. The small arms in question have long been widely available and easily made by individuals. The Obama administration added the code to ITAR for ideological purposes.
The Department of State made the argument that individual states did not have standing on international weapons law; the judge said they did, because it affected them! Of course, international law affects everyone, in some way. Not a single actual case of harm was alluded to.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
Encryption code has been ruled to be covered by the First Amendment.
This could be the perfect case for what justice Thomas talked about. The SC needs to rein in the “activist” judges who think that they can rule for the entire nation from one tiny district. Now, this joker thinks that he can rule for the entire world?
Time to tell them that their rulings only cover their jurisdiction. No dingbat in Hawaii should be telling someone in Maine what they an and can’t do.
The LAW clearly states “Shall Not Be Infringed”. The law breakers need to be held accountable!
If I own a set of blueprints, I can distribute them freely.
This is no different.
Exactly!
Charge any and all government personnel who does this as violating title 18 section 242. Deprivation of rights under color of law.
https://www.justice.gov/crt/deprivation-rights-under-color-law
Quarter million fine and ten years in prison.
One thing to note here: The Obama Administration was FAMOUS for cutting ‘deals’ (or ‘settlements’) with big business to get them to do what they wanted (usually funding for left wing groups), under threat of continuing with lawsuits against those businesses. We said “stop it!” and they laughed.
But when they don’t like us doing something similar, THEY SUE, and often win.
The left always expects us to follow the rules, but flaunts them itself.
This would not be possible without the (progressive) legacy media backing up the leftists.
The parallel with encryption code is especially apt in this case. I followed the persecution of Phil Zimmerman quite closely back in the day while on the Cypherpunks mailing list. Code is speech, and should be treated appropriately. You can’t embargo math. Not effectively anyway.
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