Posted on 03/15/2003 11:10:03 AM PST by forest
Below are a few legal terms that seem to apply to the current news reports. These are provided only because they offer interesting insight into what some lawyers in the Department of Justice may (or should) be thinking if they read the same news reports we do.
Just for kicks, we picked the oldest law dictionary on our shelf: "The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary" by James C. Cahill, dated 1922. This dictionary was chosen because it was published before American law was corrupted by the FDR administration.
Conspiracy: "A combination of two or more persons by some concerted action to accomplish some criminal or unlawful purpose, or to accomplish some purpose, not itself criminal or unlawful, by criminal or unlawful means."
Malfeasance: "The unjust performance of some act which the party had no right, or which he had contracted not, to do."
Misfeasance: "The performance of an act which might lawfully be done, in an improper manner, by which another person receives an injury."
Nonfeasance: "The neglect or failure of a person to do some act which he ought to do. The term is not generally used to denote a breach of contract, but rather the failure to perform a duty towards the public whereby some individual sustains special damage, as where a sheriff fails to execute a writ.
"When a legislative act requires a person to do a thing, its nonfeasance will subject the party to punishment; as, if a statute requires the supervisors of the highways to repair such highways, the neglect to repair them may be punished."
Last but not least comes a term from a twenty year old political dictionary of obviously liberal bent. We choose this book because we believe that, when the subject at hand is the behavior of liberal politicians, it is probably best to define the terms the way the liberal politicians understand them. And, this term was once a real favorite of the socialist reactionaries among us:
Civil Disobedience: "Refusal to obey a law, usually on the ground that the law is morally reprehensible. Recent examples of civil disobedience include Negro refusals to obey segregation laws and actions of anti-Vietnam war groups in refusing to honor draft regulations. Civil disobedience ordinarily takes the form of nonviolent resistance and is aimed at arousing public opinion against the law."
Cahill was chosen because it predated FDR's meddling.
Socialists reactionaries should re-think the def of Civil Disobedience.
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