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Living Room / Judge posesses a bomb-proof bullshit detector - and ain't afraid to use it!
« Last post by 40hz on March 20, 2014, 05:12 PM »In the midst of all the depressing legal news about Executive Branch excesses comes this TechDirt post that offers a ray of hope in the person of U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II:
You can download a PDF of his dismissal ruling here. It's a terrific read - and well worth the time.
Judge Otis Wright Slams 'Made Up' Government 'Plot' Designed To Ensnare Gullible Poor People
from the finally dept
For years now, we've been writing about the FBI's now popular practice of devising its own totally bogus "terrorist plots" and then convincing some hapless individual to join the "plot" only to later arrest them to great fanfare, despite the fact that everyone (other than the arrested person) involved was actually an FBI agent, and there was no actual danger or real plot (or real terrorists) involved. In fact, we just had yet another such story. We've written about similar occurances over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again -- and, depressingly, it seems that courts repeatedly uphold this practice as not being entrapment. Many have been questioning why the FBI is spending so much time and money creating fake terrorist plots that don't seem to protect anyone (but do give the FBI/DOJ lots of big headlines about "stopping terrorism!"), but the courts have basically let it go.
However, it finally appears that one judge thinks these kinds of things go too far -- and it happens to be Judge Otis Wright, whose name you may recall from being the first judge to really slap down Prenda law for its obnoxious copyright trolling practices. Reader Frankz alerts us to the news Wright has dismissed a case involving the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) for a similar "made up crime" and completely trashed the government for doing these kinds of things. As with his order in the Prenda case, I urge you to read his full dismissal which is granted for "outrageous government conduct." Judge Wright, it appears, is not one to hide his opinions about those who abuse the legal system. The ruling kicks off with a hint of where this is heading:
“‘Lead us not into temptation,’” Judge Noonan warned. United States v. Black, 733 F.3d 294, 313 (Noonan, J., dissenting). But into temptation the Government has gone, ensnaring chronically unemployed individuals from poverty-ridden areas in its fake drug stash-house robberies. While undoubtedly a valid law-enforcement tool when employed to target or prevent demonstrated criminal enterprises, reverse stings offend the United States Constitution when used solely to obtain convictions. <more>
You can download a PDF of his dismissal ruling here. It's a terrific read - and well worth the time.
) put the effort into the design and testing of the user interface. That and providing reliable hardware drivers. Do that and your millions of customers will love you forever - even if a few thousand consultants will "hates you forever gollum...gollum" for putting them out of business by your doing so.
)
But doesn't that leave a lot of despising to do since so many public entities ("Konigen, Kirchen, und Dumheit") do the same thing. I just want to get pissed off every so often. I don't want it to become my full time job. 