#9 - Legal theorist: Governments should not be allowed

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Strengthen—PR. The correct answer choice is (C)

The question stem prompts you to select a general principle from the answer choices that supports the conclusion in the stimulus. The conclusion here is that the government should not be allowed to use the personal diaries of an individual as evidence against that person in a criminal prosecution. In Strengthen—PR questions, the Principles in the answer choices are likely to be broader, more abstract statements than the information in the stimulus. However, in order for an answer to be correct, it must still apply to the facts in the stimulus.

Answer Choice (A): This answer choice concerns corporate officials while the argument in the stimulus concerns people who are the subject of a criminal prosecution. We do not know whether or not the individuals in the stimulus are corporate officials. The principle in this answer choice is therefore too narrow to apply to the stimulus.

Answer Choice (B): This answer choice has two problems. First, the stimulus provides no evidence suggesting that crime is a serious problem, so this answer choice does not apply to the facts as we know them. Secondly, even if this answer choice were relevant, it would weaken rather than strengthen the conclusion, because it suggests that governments should be allowed to use personal diaries.

Answer Choice (C): This is the correct answer choice. If you translate this statement using the Unless Equation, the answer choice can be diagrammed as follows:

• Gov’t allowed to use remarks Remarks intended for other people

If governments are allowed to use an individual’s remarks only when the remarks were intended for other people, and personal diaries are clearly not intended for other people, this would strengthen the argument by suggesting that governments should not be allowed to use them.

Answer Choice (D): This answer choice is a Shell Game Answer. The argument was about the government’s ability to use the diaries in a criminal prosecution, not their ability to confiscate the diaries. Even if answer choice (D) was true governments may still have the ability to use the diaries at trial if someone else actually confiscated them.

Answer Choice (E): This answer choice would weaken the argument. If governments were implored to do everything in their power to investigate and prosecute suspected wrongdoers, this would give them a license to use the diaries in question.

[lathlee]

Admin edit: due to LSAC policies and copyright law, complete LSAT questions cannot be posted online. However, posting in this section of the forum (Test Explanations) immediately identifies the question, and eliminates the need for the text to be posted. Note: you can quote small sections of the question as needed for your question.

The correct answer is C) but i don't know why it is C), i still believe the answer is d.
the question type is strength principle.

answer c) by unlesss principle = government should be allowed to use an individual's remarks to prosecute the individual for criminal activity if only the remarks must be intended for other people
C doens't really strength the conclysion of should be allowed to use the personal diaries of an dinivdual who is the subject. this principle talks about other people, not the personal in a criminal charge.
d) states baically the conclusion of this question stem but in a wider degree by using word, confiscate incstead of allowed to use.

[Robert Carroll]

lathlee,

I am just going to clarify what I think you meant: by the Unless Equation, answer choice (C) says that governments should be allowed to use the remarks only if those remarks were intended for other people.

Thus, the conditional expression of that statement:

government can use remarks remarks intended for other people

So:

remarks intended for other people government can use remarks

Here, the remarks were not intended for other people, because they were intended by the maker to be kept to him/herself, so the necessary condition of this contrapositive follows, and the remarks cannot be used by the government. The argument's conclusion is strengthened, as required.

Answer choice (D) refers to confiscating personal correspondence. The personal diaries in the stimulus are not personal correspondence, as the diary is not a letter or other message sent to someone else (or a letter from the subject of the investigation).

Robert Carroll

[Katherine4]

Would answer choice D also be incorrect because it says "personal correspondence" rather than specify the individual characteristics of the diary. I am connecting this back to if I am talking with my mother, that would include individual personal correspondence would it not? Going off that, my mother's knowledge of our conversations would be expected to be used in a criminal proceeding. I feel as if this answer is too general and does not get at what they are saying. I agree with the shell game answer, but am just curious if this could also be a reason for it being incorrect.

[Alex Bodaken]

Katherine4,

Right on - it is absolutely an additional flaw of answer choice (D) that it refers to personal correspondence, which is directed to other people, rather than self-communication, which is referenced in the stimulus. Nice work!

Alex

[okjoannawow]

Hi,

I want to make sure I have a good understanding on the question. I originally selected answer D because I thought that personal correspondence related more to the use of a journal or diary, as stated in the stim. I understand that the answer choice is incorrect because of the use of confiscate in it. Is my thinking correct?

Thank you!

[Malila Robinson]

Hi okjoannawow,

I think the problem with D is not specifically with the confiscated part, but rather it is because D failed to mention that the personal correspondence was meant to be completely private. If it was a personal correspondence like a blog, which is generally meant to be public, then there may not be a problem with the government confiscating it to use against the person.

Hope that helps!

-Malila