Here is the government press release on the Liberty Dollar case:
http://charlotte.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel11/ce031811.htmAttempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism, U.S. Attorney Tompkins said in announcing the verdict. While these forms of anti-government activities do not involve violence, they are every bit as insidious and represent a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country, she added. We are determined to meet these threats through infiltration, disruption, and dismantling of organizations which seek to challenge the legitimacy of our democratic form of government.
I worry that Bitcoin can be seen as even more of a threat to the supremacy of the dollar, which by this reasoning would make it terrorism. An extreme claim, to be sure, but apparently the U.S. Is willing to go there.
The government also advances this theory:
Article I, section 8, clause 5 of the United States Constitution delegates to Congress the power to coin money and to regulate the value thereof. This power was delegated to Congress in order to establish and preserve a uniform standard of value and to insure a singular monetary system for all purchases and debts in the United States, public and private. Along with the power to coin money, Congress has the concurrent power to restrain the circulation of money which is not issued under its own authority in order to protect and preserve the constitutional currency for the benefit of all citizens of the nation. It is a violation of federal law for individuals, such as von NotHaus, or organizations, such as NORFED, to create private coin or currency systems to compete with the official coinage and currency of the United States.
Now this is really stretching the truth. Until the Civil War era, there was no U.S. currency as such, rather paper money was issued, perfectly legally, by private banks. There is no Constitutional prohibition of private currency. There is a law that prohibits private metallic coins,
18 USC 486, which is what they used against LD. It's ominous to see the U.S. expanding its claims like this, to the point where they would cover Bitcoin.
