Blogger in Federal prison. But does the Federal law apply?


This looks like a Federal power grab and must be stopped.
This one is scary. Emphasis added.

Josh Wolf, a 24-year-old freelance journalist, made headlines last week as the first known blogger to be thrown into federal prison for not cooperating with judiciary officials.

One of the Internet's earliest video bloggers, Wolf refused to testify before a U.S. grand jury and also refused to hand over unpublished video footage he shot during a clash between San Francisco police and anti-G8 protesters in July 2005.

Wolf might normally be protected by California's shield law. But federal prosecutors, who want to see if Wolf's footage shows a San Francisco police car being set on fire at the protest, say they have jurisdiction over the case because the car was paid for in part by federal dollars.

In today's world where the Feds has intruded in every aspect of life and certainly every level of government, can you think of anything that wasn't either partially funded or regulated by the Federal government? The implications here are staggering. Under this justification, every state and local law exists solely at the discretion of the nearest Federal prosecutor.

Mr. Wolfe says as much later in the interview.

First and foremost, this issue should be a state issue. The federal grand jury is investigating the alleged attempted damage to a San Francisco police vehicle. That is the subject of the investigation. If an S.F. police vehicle is considered federal property, then what isn't federal property? Your school? Even City Hall itself. I'm not sure that that extension is accurate, but it's not very much of a stretch and that is very disturbing.

Beyond that, I should be protected in the state system by the California shield law. The state of California, the local jurisdiction, has made no attempts to try to get this footage. This is an attempt of the federal government circumventing the state protections for who knows what purpose. Something tells me that it's about more than damage to a San Francisco police vehicle. And it's a scary position when you have the government acting in such a coercive, secretive manner. The fact that I am a journalist and should be protected is a very big part of it. When I went in and began documenting this movement, I gave my word to numerous people that I would only publish what my discretion allowed and beyond that would not turn over additional material. So they are sources in a different sort of way than the Judith Miller case, but there still is an element of protecting sources and also protecting people's right to privacy and freedoms of association.

There is a reason why Federal and State law are supposed to be in conflict on some things, it helps keep the Federal government in check. Don't believe me? Look at the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

See? If the U.S. Constitution doesn't give the power to the Federal government, those powers belong to the States or to the people. And the people's rights are supposed to trump both State and Federal power. The entire Bill of Rights restricts the power of government, not the rights of the people.


— NeoWayland

Posted: Sat - August 12, 2006 at 03:05 PM  Tag


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