Ann Althouse: DC attorney general confirms law is for little people.
Ann remarks…
Why is the law important? If Gregory clearly violated the law, but there is no interest to be served in prosecuting him, doesn’t that prove that the law is not important? If the precise thing that he did — which is clearly what is defined as a crime — raises no interest in prosecution, how can we be satisfied by letting this one nice famous man go? Rewrite the law so that it only covers the activity that the government believes deserves prosecution, so there is equal justice under the law.
Seems simple enough, simply rewrite it so that it doesn’t apply to liberal journalists. No big deal? I feel certain liberal journalists would see no problem with such an exception.
Government has the prerogative of not enforcing laws, but in our system it should do this universally. It should either enforce it on everybody, or enforce it on nobody. Selective enforcement just delegitimizes the law, and government.
I think it would be constructive for Gregory to be arrested and put on trial for his legal violation, even if a jury exercised its prerogative to nullify the law, and let him go, just so he could experience a bit of the silliness of it. Perhaps then he would have a more realistic perspective on gun control legislation. I mean, hey, I think a good case could be made that gun control legislation conflicted with the First Amendment.
“Selective enforcement just delegitimizes the law, and government.” Indeed but I think the “elites” and most jounalists are blind to this. Plus with so many laws in the present day, many are bound to become delegitimized.
Ahhh, Jury nullifcation. Something that is rarely mentioned in the court room would most likely be mentioned numerous ties in the jury instructions if David Gregory went to trial. Michael Brown also takes this up over it his blog. Too hard to try and embed the link so hope it comes out ok..
http://www.michaelbrowntoday.com/2013/01/dcs-attorney-general-refuses-to-prosecute-david-gregory/
Boulder County enforces most of their land use regulations by complaint.