Tuesday, June 25, 2013

If this is true...

The Supreme Court handed down a decision on June 17 that has been ignored by most media outlets, despite its devastating effect on one of the most fundamental rights protected by the Constitution.

In a 5-4 ruling, the justices ruled that a person no longer has the right to remain silent as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. In relevant part, the Fifth Amendment mandates that no one “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.”

Thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision in Salinas v. Texas, that part of the Bill of Rights has been excised — and has joined the list of so many other fundamental liberties that now lie on the scrap heap of history.
 (from The New American)

If this is true...well then, what, really?  To grossly paraphrase Arthur Silber, why get all uppity about the right to remain silent, in a world in which the state can simply murder you, for any reason it wants or for no reason at all, in complete secrecy?

Outrageous?  Sure.  But there is absolutely no surprise here. 

And in a way, it may be better like this--it's been so tiring to have to endure the increasingly rainbow-colored unicorn excreta from the "it can't happen here" crowd, that--since it's not like the larger public seems interested in, like, you know, FIXING THE PROBLEM--at least we might as well drop the pretense entirely.  Just maybe, this might shift the relentless excuse-mongering to something else...maybe how "necessary" this all is, or how "not a big deal", or some other boilerplate entry from Ye Oulde Statist Playbook.

As long as nobody's listening, we might as well get some rotation of the excuses in there...

1 comment:

MamaLiberty said...

Indeed... I'm not worried about a "traffic stop" myself. Only had one in 50 years of driving. And if the goons show up at my back door, I suspect that my desire to remain silent or their silly rules for it will be the very least of my worries. I'll be too busy with a few other things.

Outrageous? Of course... but in the greater scheme of things, probably not going to make a lot of difference to most of us.