Meanwhile, odingdong pardons drug dealers and seeks to empty Guantanamo of terrorists.
It’s a topsy-turvy world.
Go figure.
The point of the article is administrative regulations that carry criminal penalties do not take criminal intent into mind. You can be arrested, tried, convicted and sent to prison for a crime you didn’t know you committed and its perfectly legal.
There are so many regulations on the books no one can possibly know all of them or figure out how to comply with them. Even if you’re careful, you inevitably end up breaking some of them because if you literally obeyed them, nothing would get done.
To stop overcriminalization, we need to include a mea rens intent in applying administrative regulations and the government has to prove you willfully and recklessly violated them to harm others or defraud someone, not just an honest mistake. As it stands, we’re all guilty because there is no way we can’t break some rule. Its true “ignorance of the law” is no excuse but no one can possibly know every law. Its impossible.
Proposed Constitutional amendment:
Only Congress, with the signature of the President, shall pass a law .....
[oh wait] Never mind.
If there’s one thing the government IS good at it’s collecting money. They are relentless in their pursuit of a buck. It’s the ONLY way they can thrive since they build or make nothing. The questionable services they provide are hopelessly on a loss curve. Therefore the ONLY way they can fund them is to collect money through taxes, fines, tariffs and other similar revenue streams.
We have a two-tiered government these days folks. One for them and one for us.