Government Is Sued Over Seizure of Liberty Dollars

FROM:
http://www.nysun.com/national/govern...dollars/80368/

Government Is Sued Over Seizure of Liberty Dollars

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 20, 2008

The federal government's attempt to stop a group of
gold-standard activists from minting an alternative
to the greenback is about to face its first legal
test.

A dozen people around the country filed suit in U.S.
District Court in Idaho this week demanding the
return of all the copper, silver, gold, and platinum
coins - more than seven tons of metal in all - that
the FBI and Secret Service seized in November during
raids of a mint in Idaho and a strip mall storefront
in Indiana.

The Justice Department had decided that the coins,
many of which bear the familiar symbol of Lady Liberty
and the phrase "TRUST IN GOD," were being illegally
marketed as government-sanctioned currency, according
to the sworn affidavit of an FBI agent.

The creator of the coins, Bernard von NotHaus, who
lives in Miami, claims that the federal government is
trying to shut down production of his liberty dollars,
as the coins are called, because of the competition
they pose to the greenback. In recent years, his
precious metal coins have outperformed the dollar,
whose value has plunged in relation to gold.

The raids in November were the result of a two-year
undercover investigation of Mr. Von NotHaus and how
he sold liberty dollars. The Justice Department has
not followed up with any criminal charges against Mr.
Von NotHaus or the regional distributors of his coins.

In the suit filed in Idaho, the various plaintiffs
say the federal government has no right to continue
holding onto their coins any longer.

While it is common for agents to warehouse property
seized during criminal investigations, such as
firearms or surveillance equipment, the plaintiffs
say coins of precious metal should be off-limits.

The coins "do not constitute contraband or other
property subject to seizure," the legal papers state,
adding that the seizures violated the Fourth Amendment
rights of the plaintiffs.

For the most part, the plaintiffs had possessed bearer
certificates for the silver liberty dollars that were
being warehoused in Couer d'Alene, Idaho, at a mint.
The mint, Sunshine Minting, is one of the sites that
federal agents raided.

In an unusual request, the plaintiffs ask for an order,
at the very least, forbidding federal agents from
touching or moving the coins so that they are not
dirtied in any way.

"Mishandling numismatic material can negatively impact
value," the legal papers say.

A spokesman for the Justice Department, Charles Miller,
said that the agency had not yet seen the legal papers
and could not comment.

E-mail messages circulating among Liberty Dollar
enthusiasts have expressed fears that the federal
government intends to publicly auction off the coins.
There has been no public announcement indicating that
to be the case. The U.S. attorney's office in Asheville,
N.C., which led the investigation that prompted the raids
last November, did not return several calls for
comment over the last few weeks.

Mr. Von NotHaus markets his coins via the Internet as an
inflation-proof currency and claims that between 100,000
and 250,000 Americans own them. They have attracted the
interest of coin enthusiasts, as well as critics of the
Federal Reserve.

A 1999 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center said
that many of the stores that accepted liberty dollars
"are run by men and women connected to the radical right."
The coins have caught on particularly well in Asheville,
N.C., and Austin, Texas, and are accepted by some
merchants there.

More than 50,000 of the coins seized last year bear the
likeness of Rep. Ron Paul, whose monetary policies
Mr. Von NotHaus supports.

"About a quarter of a million people holding liberty
dollars are almost up-in arms - not up in arms yet,
but almost - about having their property seized, and
rightly so," Mr. Von NotHaus told The New York Sun
yesterday.


...

On Jun 19, 11:42�pm, "Arizona Coin Collector"
provided, in part:
FROM:http://www.nysun.com/national/govern...eizure-of-libe...

Government Is Sued Over Seizure of Liberty Dollars

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 20, 2008

snip

E-mail messages circulating among Liberty Dollar
enthusiasts have expressed fears that the federal
government intends to publicly auction off the coins.
There has been no public announcement indicating that
to be the case. The U.S. attorney's office in Asheville,
N.C., which led the investigation that prompted the raids
last November, did not return several calls for
comment over the last few weeks.

snip

Even though there was no announcement on the government's intentions
of how to dispose of the Liberty Dollars, selling them would set a
precedent that it's okay to mint your own currency, as long as the
feds get their cut.

Jerry

On Jun 19, 11:42*pm, "Arizona Coin Collector"
wrote:

A 1999 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center said...

The SPLC is a radical left-wing group, probably financed by communists
and other leftie radicals.

"RF" wrote in message
...
On Jun 19, 11:42 pm, "Arizona Coin Collector"
wrote:



The SPLC is a radical left-wing group, probably financed by communists
and other leftie radicals.

I guess RF is a Klan supporter as well...we know he wants all Muslims
killed...what a disgusting human being...

The Southern Poverty Law Center was organized by Dees and Levin in 1971
during a desegregation case (Smith v. Young Men's Christian Association[5]),
as a law firm to handle anti-discrimination cases in the United States. The
organization's first president was Julian Bond, formerly of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Bond served as president of the SPLC
until 1979 and remains on its board of directors. In 1979 the Center brought
the first of its many cases against the Ku Klux Klan. In 1981 the Center
began its "Klanwatch" (now "Hatewatch") project to monitor and track the
activities of the KKK, which has been expanded to include seven other types
of hate organizations.[6]



Southern Poverty Law Center Headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama.
In July 1983 Klan members firebombed the center's office destroying the
building and records.[7] Federal investigators said "the intruders went to
work quickly, dousing files, desks and carpets with a petroleum based
liquid, perhaps gasoline mixed with motor oil or diesel fuel and
concentrating on the four corners of the 6,000-square-foot building."[7] In
February 1985 Klan members and a Klan sympathizer pled guilty to federal and
state charges to the fire.[8] At the trial, "Joe M. Garner and Roy T. Downs
Jr., identified as klansmen, and Charles Bailey pleaded guilty to a
two-count information charging them with conspiring to threaten, oppress and
intimidate members of black organizations represented by the law center."[8]
Over 30 people have been jailed in connection with plots to kill Dees or
blow up the center.[9]

That same year, Dees became the primary assassination target of The Order, a
revolutionary white supremacist group, for his work with the SPLC.[10] Radio
host Alan Berg was killed by the group outside his Colorado home; he was the
number two on its list.[11]

In 1987 the group won a case against the United Klans of America.[12] This
included a $7 million judgment for the mother of Michael Donald, a black
lynching victim in Alabama.[12] In 1987 the Klan again targeted Dees and
planned to bomb the SPLC.[13]



The Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama.
In 1989 the Center unveiled its Civil Rights Memorial designed by Maya
Lin.[14] The Center's "Teaching Tolerance" project was initiated in 1991,
and its "Klanwatch" program has gradually expanded to include other
"anti-hate" monitoring projects and a list of reported "hate groups" in the
United States.

In October 1990, the SPLC won $12.5 million in damages against Tom Metzger
and his White Aryan Resistance when a Portland, Oregon, jury held the
neo-Nazi group liable in the beating death of an Ethiopian immigrant.[15]
While Meztger lost his home and will not be publishing any more material,
the full amount of the multi-million dollar reward was not recovered.[16] In
1995 a group of four white males were indicted for plans to blow up the
SPLC.[17]

A 1996 USA Today article claimed that the Southern Poverty Law Center is
"the nation's richest civil rights organization", with $68 million in assets
at the time.[18] Starting in 1971, the SPLC set aside money for its
endowment in future programs, which is currently $111 million in order "to
carry on the struggle for tolerance and justice - for as long as it is
needed."[19]

In May 1998, three white supremacists were arrested for allegedly planning a
nationwide campaign of assassinations and bombings targeting "Morris Dees,
an undisclosed federal judge in Illinois, a black radio-show host in
Missouri, Dees's Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama, the Simon
Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, and the Anti-Defamation League in New
York."[20] Several neo-Nazi groups held a rally in front of SPLC
headquarters in early 2003.[21]

In July 2007, the SPLC filed suit against the Imperial Klans of America
(IKA) in Meade County, where in July 2006 five Klansmen allegedly beat
Jordan Gruver, a 16-year-old boy of Panamanian descent at a Kentucky county
fair.[22] Since filing the suit the SPLC has received nearly a dozen threats
"promising the most dangerous threat" ever faced.[22] A July 29 letter
allegedly came from Hal Turner, a white supremacist talk show host.[22]

On Jun 21, 11:45*am, "Helen Wallace"
wrote:
"RF" wrote in message

...
On Jun 19, 11:42 pm, "Arizona Coin Collector"
wrote:

The SPLC is a radical left-wing group, probably financed by communists
and other leftie radicals.

I guess RF is a Klan supporter as well...we know he wants all Muslims
killed...what a disgusting human being...

Now, now Fwankie, shall we go back to those posts about you in this
group that accused you of, well let's not say now...

In article ,
Arizona Coin Collector wrote:
FROM:
http://www.nysun.com/national/govern...dollars/80368/

Government Is Sued Over Seizure of Liberty Dollars

As I recall, the trouble started because some people were trying to
spend these Liberty Dollars as actual money, at supermarets and the
like.

That is extrememly stupid. If you believe them to be a superior
currency, then why waste them at places like Krogers that are
willing to take *inferior* money instead?


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