Modulator

Administration Supports Increased Use of Lawyers

And the American Library Association is fighting back on our behalf:

Last week, the American Library Association learned that the Department of Justice asked the Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents to instruct depository libraries to destroy five publications the Department has deemed not "appropriate for external use." The Department of Justice has called for these five public documents, two of which are texts of federal statutes, to be removed from depository libraries and destroyed, making their content available only to those with access to a law office or law library.

The topics addressed in the named documents include information on how citizens can retrieve items that may have been confiscated by the government during an investigation. The documents to be removed and destroyed include: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure; Select Criminal Forfeiture Forms; Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes; Asset forfeiture and money laundering resource directory; and Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA).

Julia at Sisyphus Shrugged asks:

Can you think of any reason why our current ruling party would be trying to keep americans from having access to information about our laws?

Let's see, here are a few possibilities:

1) They think ordinary citizens are too dumb to be able to read federal statutes without a lawyer to interpret?

2) Citizens have been making effective use of the material to protect their rights without the aid of lawyers?

3) If the feds make it hard to fact check their asses they can make things up as they go along with less concern?

4) An uninformed citizenry will make it easier to to fight the "war on terror."

5) To help pay for Iraq (see 2 above).

Any more ideas?

Posted by Steve on August 2, 2004