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November 9, 2015

Glenn Reynolds: If you care about civil rights for minorities, gun control is not the answer.

If it were up to me, I’d find it a violation of the due process clause to treat violation of regulatory statutes as a felony.

Historically, only the most serious crimes — typically carrying the death penalty — were felonies. Nowadays, though, we designate all sorts of trivial crimes, such as possessing an eagle feather, as felonies. This has the effect of empowering police and prosecutors at the expense of citizens, since it’s easy to find a felony if you look hard enough, and few citizens have the courage of a veteran like Cort, who went to trial anyway. Most will plead to something. - - USA Today

Posted by gerardvanderleun at November 9, 2015 3:29 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

I agree that violating regulations should not be a felony, or to put it another way, felonies should not be invented by non-legislators.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 10, 2015 9:25 AM

Given what has happened with the surfeit of regulations, perhaps we should make it a felony to be an officeholder.

Posted by: Vermont Woodchuck [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 11, 2015 3:00 AM

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