Off on a Technicality: Difference between revisions
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* If the US government has spied on you illegally and they classified the spying as secret, you can't sue. Because the fact that they spied on you is classified, you can't prove they spied on you. [[Catch-22|If you could prove it, you could sue, but the evidence is secret, so you can't]].
** Even if you can prove that the government illegally spied on you, the feds will try to have the entire case thrown out on "state secrecy" grounds. Even if some of the evidence you have isn't secret.
*** In evidence involving government spying, they can legally conceal the "sources and methods." This is because there is another law forbidding the names of intelligence agents under non-official cover to be publicly revealed anywhere ever<ref>Because doing so quite often gets people killed.</ref>, and court proceedings are public record.
* The Scopes "[[wikipedia:Scopes Trial|Monkey Trial]]", over the teaching of evolution in schools. Scopes's conviction was set aside on appeal: The Butler Act, forbidding teaching of evolution, carried a mandatory fine of $100, which is what Scopes had been fined when convicted. However, Tennessee law of the time forbade judges from setting fines above $50, rendering the judgment invalid.
* An infamous political example: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." A US President (Clinton) lying under oath is clear grounds for impeachment, but because [[Spock Speak|the agreed-on legal wording during the deposition for "sexual relations" did not include oral sex]], that charge failed. The joke at the time was "this is how you [[A Worldwide Punomenon|get off]] on a technicality". (Clinton ''was'' impeached for obstructing justice and a separate perjury charge, but acquitted by the US Senate).
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