I don't know that I came away from it with anything other than "you usually can't sue the Federal government, unless they pass a law saying you can, unless it's one of a narrowly defined (and apparently arbitrary) set of the circumstances that the Supreme Court says are cool.
Yeah, that's a pretty good summary of the Bivens doctrine. The Anwar al-Awlaki court decision is frustrating because the court says U.S. citizens have a Fifth Amendment interest in not being blown up in drone strikes, buuuuuuuuut because this is in the area of national security and the military, the plaintiffs lose. It's a super arbitrary decision. Sure, his rights were violated by the feds but no you can't do anything about it.
I am pretty good at understanding normie understanding of / interaction with the law because I have very little tolerance lawyering -- that is to say arguing over what the rules mean. After a few minutes of that, I just do what I do and see what the consequences are.
Obvious, moral stuff like "don't hit people" is fine, but don't ask me how to pay taxes. I definitely make arbitrary decisions on filing my taxes, which I still do myself mainly because it's almost entirely automated and because I move states too much, so nobody wants to work for me.
Yeah, that's a pretty good summary of the Bivens doctrine. The Anwar al-Awlaki court decision is frustrating because the court says U.S. citizens have a Fifth Amendment interest in not being blown up in drone strikes, buuuuuuuuut because this is in the area of national security and the military, the plaintiffs lose. It's a super arbitrary decision. Sure, his rights were violated by the feds but no you can't do anything about it.
I am pretty good at understanding normie understanding of / interaction with the law because I have very little tolerance lawyering -- that is to say arguing over what the rules mean. After a few minutes of that, I just do what I do and see what the consequences are.
Obvious, moral stuff like "don't hit people" is fine, but don't ask me how to pay taxes. I definitely make arbitrary decisions on filing my taxes, which I still do myself mainly because it's almost entirely automated and because I move states too much, so nobody wants to work for me.