@dang, while this is getting flagged because the nature of the story is contentious, I think it's absolutely legit for HN given that it's exceptionally newsworthy (as an unprecedented event), sits at the intersection of privacy vs police power (a perennial topic on HN), and raises questions about the consistency of the legal system (ditto).
Also, it's just going to keep getting posted if people keep trying to flag it out of existence.
I've given up. HN considers any serious discussion of politics anti-intellectual to the degree HN avoids intelligent discussion about politics. It's so risk averse it's become 180 degrees from, and thus manages to be even worse than, Reddit. Like how could you possibly be worse than Reddit?! I know! Flag controversial political discussions! It's a great way to coddle those most needing accountability as if the mere existence of the topic is the problem! Imagine people so disturbed by a topic they want to ensure everyone else avoids it.
It's not risk aversion. Hacker News doesn't avoid intelligent discussion about politics, rather this community has proven time and time again that it isn't even capable of it, especially where Trump is concerned, and people are pre-emptively flagging what's likely to be a very high noise, low signal thread.
This is a community whose education on computer science comes from MIT and Stanford, but whose education on politics comes from 4chan and the Unabomber manifesto.
I mean, I would love to see intelligent political discussion on Hacker News, politics is one of the great intellectual pursuits. But it just isn't going to happen here.
but whose education on politics comes from 4chan and the Unabomber manifesto
Being very familiar with both I wish it rose to the level of the worthwhile political content in those examples, but instead seems to sink to the least interesting aspects of both. C'est la vie.
Also, it's just going to keep getting posted if people keep trying to flag it out of existence.