By privacy, I don't mean that no one can see me,
I mean that I am not required to explain my actions, unless I am accused of wrong-doing.
In other words, if someone demands that I explain why I paid cash for that car,
I am justified in telling them to mind their own business.
# 155 by exodus
*******************
To: exodus
"...if someone demands that I explain why I paid cash for that car,
I am justified in telling them to mind their own business."
You are right.
And this law does not say otherwise.
It says a record will be made that you paid cash for the car,
if you paid $10,000 or more. That has been the law for years.
If someone from the government later asks you why you did,
you have several choices: tell them, don't tell them,
ask them why they want to know,
ask to talk to a lawyer before responding further.
"But until someone from the government
asks you why....
the 4th Amendment does not apply."
# 176 by JD86
************
You're a lawyer?!
Assume government agents come into my house,
uninvited, without my permission.
They catalog all my possessions,
copy my hard drive, copy my written records,
and then distribute copies of all that
to any government agency that's interested
in seeing my collected personal data.
By your lawyerly reasoning,
that's not a search unless
they ask me to explain myself.
All of the comments I have made on this thread are about the Federal Patriot Act....NOT about wild scenarios that people make up and say what if the government did this....??? Your comments above are a prime example....if you can show me any language in the Patriot Act that allows the behavior in your hypothetical....then I will respond. Otherwise, your made up example has no value in this discussion.
Let me try to give you an example for comparison. Let us say we were discussing the right of a parent to discipline their child without government interference. Let us say my position was that the parents should be allowed to discipline the child. And then you ask well, what if they tie the child up and torture the child and then they kill the child and then they bury the child in the backyard...is that okay? Do you still believe parents can discipline the child? Obviously torture and murder are not within the realm of discipline considered appropriate by most parents. Your example is just as extreme. There is NOTHING in the Patriot Act about going into your house and doing ANYTHING so your example does not apply in this discussion.