Subject: Public domain citations
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 14:20:40 -0500
From: cole_rua@byrd.tiac.net (Julian Cole & Christine Rua)
To: citation@teo.uscourts.gov.

     I am a lay person, with no experience in the law.  Nevertheless, 
it seems to me that law in a democracy must operate in a way which 
gives full access to private citizens.

     Our system of government is supposed to represent and defend the 
interests of human beings, although lately anyone would think that 
its main purpose is to serve corporate interests.  The privatization 
of any part of the democratic process (and this surely must include 
the law) is clearly anathema to ideas of open government.

     It is clearly not possible for citizens to be adequately 
represented to the legal process if the information about the law is 
privately held.  And the private holding of a citation system is 
equivalent to the private holding of the information itself, since 
the quantities of data involved preclude its use without a citation 
system.

     Such a system must be public, if the law is to remain public.  
Without it, the citizen cannot even know that the law is, and cannot 
therefore democratically be required to respect it.

                                   Sincerely,

                                   Julian Cole & Christine Rua
                                   Musical and Literary Performances
                                   Software Engineering
                                   WWWeb Wizardry

web:    http://www.tiac.net/users/cole rua/
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