Home / General / The Real Scandal Is What’s Legal: Section 7 Edition

The Real Scandal Is What’s Legal: Section 7 Edition

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I’ve seen calls in comments thread to update this post in light of the fact that David Miranda might have been suspected of carrying stolen classified documents. But I fail to see how this is relevant given the actual facts of the case. (This should go without saying, but even less relevant is the question of whether Glenn Greenwald does too much to draw attention to himself or whether his assessments of American electoral politics are sound, or whatever.) Had he been subject to an ordinary search, or had specific items confiscated based on a warrant with individualized suspicion, then it would be relevant. But this wasn’t the case. He was detained under a broad grant of arbitrary power given by the Terrorism Act of 2000. He was detained for 9 hours even though he obviously wasn’t a terrorist suspect. This detention seems to be plausibly lawful given the breadth of the statute, which is an excellent illustration of why conferring broad authority to arbitrarily detain people on the executive branch based on promises that it will be used narrowly is a horrible idea. Anyway, this is a clear abuse of power, full stop. If there’s evidence that he was carrying stolen goods, then question or arrest him on that basis. People who aren’t terrorist suspects shouldn’t be detained under Section 7, and the possibility to use these broad provisions against dissidents is pretty obvious.

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