Self-study
Legal theorist: Conclusion Governments should not be allowed to use the personal diaries of an individual who is the subject of a criminal prosecution as evidence against that individual. █ █████ ██ █ ██████ ████████████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███████ █████ ████████ █████ ███ ███████ █████ ████████ ██ ████████
Summarize Argument
The legal theorist concludes that governments shouldn’t be allowed to use a person’s diary as evidence against them in a criminal prosecution. She supports this by saying that a diary is a conversation with oneself and there’s no real difference between talking to oneself, writing down one’s thoughts, and keeping those thoughts private.
Notable Assumptions
The legal theorist assumes that governments shouldn’t use a person’s words— whether spoken or written— against them if those words are only meant for that person herself.
9.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ██████████ █████████
a
Governments should not ██ ███████ ██ ██████ █████████ █████████ ██ █████████ ███████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ██████████████
The legal theorist is only talking about individual people and their private diaries. Interoffice memos are not analogous to diaries. Diaries are a private conversation with oneself, while interoffice memos are shared throughout an office.
b
When crime is █ ███████ ████████ ███████████ ██████ ██ █████ █████████ █████ ██ ███████████ ███ █████████ █████████ ███████████ ███ ████ ████████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████
The legal theorist is advocating for a specific restriction on admissible evidence used in government investigations, while (B) supports loosening some of these restrictions. (B) also fails to address why a person’s private words shouldn’t be used against them.
c
Governments should not ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██ ████████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ███████
This suggests that governments should never use a person’s words against them if those words were meant only for the person herself. This supports the idea that the government shouldn’t use someone’s diary as evidence against them.
d
Governments should not ████ ███ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████████ ████████ ██████████████ ██ ███ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ █ ████████ ██████
The legal theorist is discussing words directed to oneself, whether spoken or written. Correspondence isn’t analogous to a private diary because it’s between two or more people.
e
Governments should do ██████████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ███████████ ███ █████████ █████████ ███████████
This weakens the argument because the legal theorist wants to limit what governments can do in investigations, while (E) argues that governments should do everything in their power. Presumably “everything” includes using someone’s personal diary against them.