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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   29851 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 1, 2024

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Is this a fair thought experiment for reframing the principles behind the Chevron decision in way that might change how opponents are predisposed to think about it?

Let's say there is a law against theft, but the law is vague. What latitude should the police be given when making arrests based on that law? Should they be able to decide that the definition of theft can be widened to accommodate new scenarios not previously considered theft? Should they have the discretion to change their definition of theft at will? And should the police also empowered to enforce punishment for their definition of theft without review by a court?

Should the judgment of the police be deferred to in this scenario? Or should the police/prosecutors have their enforcement go through the court system for review? If the law is so vague that it is open to what looks like unfair discretion on the part of the police, who should review this law? The police? If not, who else?

Or does this analogy not map very well to the same arguments?

Given my complaints about the capricious and at times outright malicious behavior of the ATF, I endorse this analogy.

Furthermore, it's barely an analogy. The ATF, who are federal law enforcement, love to invent novel rules on the fly and switch to a new interpretation of the rules whenever it pleases them.

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