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U.S. Constitution-Free Zones

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I’ve been hearing about the Constitution-Free Zone of the United States but haven’t yet done any follow-up research, partly because I’m annoyed.

Here is the map and here is the “Fact Sheet.” What annoys me is that it is missing some facts I would like to see, in fact need to see and that it Creates Work for me when the authors don’t include the facts. (My mother always said, “don’t make work,” which was very clever of her. We could create whatever mayhem we wanted to as kids, but it was (mostly) ok as long as we cleaned up the mess and didn’t Make Work (for her or my dad). We got pretty good at cleaning up our own messes too, which has served us well in life 🙂

Lawyers and law librarians need, really need, cites to authority, whether or not the article (or claim in question) is likely to survive a “fact” check. E.g. when the “Fact Sheet” says, ‘The border, however, has always been an exception. There, the longstanding view is that the normal rules do not apply. For example the authorities do not need a warrant or probable cause to conduct a “routine search”,’ most law librarians (me!) would ask, “where’s the authority for that statement, what laws, what statutes, what cases?,” etc. Who and what says it is an exception? What is this “longstanding view?” Which “authorities” don’t need a warrant? The answers may be buried at this website, but they should be in plain view.

Question authority, especially the lack of it.

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