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PaperclipPerfector  12d ago (text post)   33248 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 10, 2025

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As an outside observer of American politics, the concept of sanctuary cities never made sense to me as anything else than aiding and abetting crime you approve of.

Now I understand Americans have a vastly different culture of law where things like prosecutorial discretion and federalism can turn this into checks and balances. But it nevertheless undermines the rule of law in my view by allowing criminals that are friendly to local institutions to avoid justice.

I think what you're objecting to here is the personal nature of the quid pro quo, but USG has routinely dangled things like federal funding to get around uncooperative State institutions. The DoE exists (existed?) for no other reason than to subvert the constitution in this way and allow the feds practical control over educational institutions.

I must then ask, what's the difference between doing such politics at the institutional level and the personal level? Keeping in mind that both are attempts to subvert the spirit of the law.

As an outside observer of American politics, the concept of sanctuary cities never made sense to me as anything else than aiding and abetting crime you approve of.

Well, there's a motte and there's a bailey. Cities and States are not obligated to assist the Federal government (amusingly, this is a precedent set by conservative States in not wishing to assist in Federal gun control). But they are also not permitted to obstruct the federal government.

So the mottey person says: sanctuary cities are just cities that have an institutional policy of not assisting where they don't have it. And of course that's true, justifiable and very quickly crosses the line into impermissible obstruction.

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