That sounds like something Jim would say. Except he would give excruciating detail about the method of execution.
Sean Flynn
December 16, 2009
In response to my suggestion that the U.S. Constitution should require any government employee who votes for or enforces a law or regulation that is later found to be unconstitutional is to be charged with and convicted for the crime of treason.
[Sean and I both like Jim.–Joe]
It’s a nice thought, but the necessary Good Faith defense would swallow the rule. As much as there are certain legislators who should’ve been tried for treason
before dying of a brain tumorlong ago, we can’t just go imprisoning every police officer who enforces a noise ordinance that is later found to be overbroad or vague.Well, that’s creepy. I was thinking on the way to work this morning about this exact thing.
It worked out pretty well for Honduras.
Wouldn’t that violate ex post facto, i.e. before a person does anything, they should be able to determine whether it is legal or not? Who would want to be a cop if something you did years ago that you reasonably believed to be legal and constitutional could get you throw in jail or executed when some judge found it unconstitutional years later?
What if the pass a constitutional amendment someday requiring socialized medicine? Would they throw everyone who campaigned and voted against it into jail?
Better still would be to make it a civil offense any citizen could privately enforce — a few steps away from the “private attorney general” statutes in place in some states. The benefit, of course, would be the endless creativity in the methods of execution.