<story><title>Fifth Amendment Prohibits Compelled Decryption, New EFF Brief Argues</title><url>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/10/new-eff-amicus-brief-argues-fifth-amendment-prohibits-compelled-decryption</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>saraid216</author><text>&amp;gt; Yes in theory everyone..&lt;p&gt;Um. Which theory is this? Last I checked, as an American citizen, I&amp;#x27;m not subject to Russian law. Why are Russians subject to American law?</text></item><item><author>eof</author><text>Yes in theory everyone.. not just nationals&amp;#x2F;citizens are protected by the constitution&amp;#x2F;bill of rights.  But the reality is that no, there are too many exceptions to what was supposed to be a source of truth in our laws to do much more than &amp;#x27;pretend&amp;#x27; we are protected by the constitution; citizens or otherwise.</text></item><item><author>thex86</author><text>Does the Fifth Amendment only apply to US citizens? The reason I ask is this: if I am traveling to the US and the TSA asks me to decrypt my laptop or unlock my phone, am I protected under the Fifth Amendment? Well, are US citizens protected under it at the airport?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dllthomas</author><text>Russians being protected by the 5th Amendment is not an example of Russians being subject to American laws, but an example of the American government being subject to American laws.</text></comment>
<story><title>Fifth Amendment Prohibits Compelled Decryption, New EFF Brief Argues</title><url>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/10/new-eff-amicus-brief-argues-fifth-amendment-prohibits-compelled-decryption</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>saraid216</author><text>&amp;gt; Yes in theory everyone..&lt;p&gt;Um. Which theory is this? Last I checked, as an American citizen, I&amp;#x27;m not subject to Russian law. Why are Russians subject to American law?</text></item><item><author>eof</author><text>Yes in theory everyone.. not just nationals&amp;#x2F;citizens are protected by the constitution&amp;#x2F;bill of rights.  But the reality is that no, there are too many exceptions to what was supposed to be a source of truth in our laws to do much more than &amp;#x27;pretend&amp;#x27; we are protected by the constitution; citizens or otherwise.</text></item><item><author>thex86</author><text>Does the Fifth Amendment only apply to US citizens? The reason I ask is this: if I am traveling to the US and the TSA asks me to decrypt my laptop or unlock my phone, am I protected under the Fifth Amendment? Well, are US citizens protected under it at the airport?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>npsimons</author><text>In general, the US constitution only specifies &amp;quot;citizens&amp;quot; and not &amp;quot;people&amp;quot; when it&amp;#x27;s talking about things like voting and holding office, etc. Rights (such as the bill of rights) are generally expressed as belonging to &amp;quot;people&amp;quot;, not just the citizens of the US. It&amp;#x27;s also in the spirit of the declaration of independence that &amp;quot;all men are created equal&amp;quot;, which would lead one to believe that they all have certain inalienable rights, citizen or otherwise. Just because the current xenophobic culture that is popular today doesn&amp;#x27;t jive with that doesn&amp;#x27;t change it. It also doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that Russians are subject to American law (at least not while in Russia), but that for things such as rights, they apply to everyone. So, for instance, some would maintain that warrantless searches, &amp;quot;close&amp;quot; to the border or otherwise, are unconstitutional no matter who they are performed on.</text></comment>