12 votes

Supreme Court reins in definition of crime under controversial hacking law

4 comments

  1. [2]
    emnii
    Link
    It's wild how much of this decision is based on the use of the word "so" when we frequently hear about how legislators are pushed to vote on laws that are hundreds of pages of text with little to...

    It's wild how much of this decision is based on the use of the word "so" when we frequently hear about how legislators are pushed to vote on laws that are hundreds of pages of text with little to no time to read them.

    7 votes
    1. cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      If you think that's wild, you should read about the various Second Amendment cases, and the significant decisions that came down to interpreting the intent regarding the unusual placement of the...

      If you think that's wild, you should read about the various Second Amendment cases, and the significant decisions that came down to interpreting the intent regarding the unusual placement of the commas in it. There is even a good podcast episode on it, if you want something to listen to instead:
      Radiolab Presents: More Perfect - The Gun Show

      5 votes
  2. [2]
    joplin
    Link
    I hate that our law works based on uncommon uses of common words. I think we would be better off if some of this was explicitly spelled out instead of interpreting words in this way. It makes it...

    I hate that our law works based on uncommon uses of common words. I think we would be better off if some of this was explicitly spelled out instead of interpreting words in this way. It makes it much less accessible for lay people to understand the law and leads to lots of misconceptions, which leads to an imbalance of power between people and the state. I suppose it shortens our laws though. I wonder if there could be some sort of compromise where laws are written as today, and a layman's guide is produced by the government that makes these sorts of things clear? It would cost money to implement and require people to implement it, though, so it's probably a non-starter.

    7 votes
    1. Artemix
      Link Parent
      I think that the part that makes me the most mad is the fact that we are held accountable when breaking the law, but in its current state, it is simply impossible to even begin to browse / search...

      I think that the part that makes me the most mad is the fact that we are held accountable when breaking the law, but in its current state, it is simply impossible to even begin to browse / search it in simple... "human" terms, even less if (like most people), you're not familiar with legal jargon.

      So we get accountable for things we can't know about.

      8 votes