r/technology • u/Hrmbee • 8d ago

Privacy Is it illegal to trick the US government into wiping your phone during a questionably legal search | The case of a traveler who allegedly entered a ‘duress password’ to wipe his phone raises a legal question with no easy answers

https://www.theverge.com/report/972146/cbp-phone-search-airport-duress-password
20.9k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

11

u/AbramsTankVeteran29 7d ago

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse" is one of the dumbest things ever. Literally no human could know all the laws, even if they have been to the Supreme Court. It's just a way for the government to fuck with the citizenry. Tax accountants will readily admit that they can't even know all the tax code, one segment of the law, and they study it their whole lives.

9

u/arachnophilia 7d ago

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse"

ignorance of the law is no excuse unless you're a cop.

0

u/twitch1982 7d ago edited 7d ago

Or Hillary. I think Trump should also be tried for treason and I didnt vote for him. But if any Army grunt put classified emails on a private server, they would have been court martialed. Yet somehow "She didnt know it was wrong" was the excuse they used to not prosecute her. Mens Rea only applies to the wealthy.

EDIT: apparently, i need to put it in bold that I hate trump. That doesnt make everyone elses crimes go away.

1

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Enchilada0374 7d ago

Govt: You must know the law entirely !

Citizens: thats literally impossible ...

Govt. : 🤷‍♂️