Little-Acorn
Gold Member
The fifth is to protect people from government, it's not to protect government from their crimes against the people.
^that
Nonetheless, even lying slimebags like Lois Lerner have the same right to take the 5th, as innocent people do. It must be that way, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Government has no more authority to declare "exceptions" to the protections of the 5th amendment, than they have any power to declare "reasonable restrictions" in defiance of the 2nd amendment.
The Framers knew that if the government had the slightest power to find a loophole, they would drive a truck through it. True for the 5th, and true for the 2nd (as we are seeing today). So they flatly forbade ALL such exceptions.