There’s a lot of good stuff up over at Crime and Federalism:
Norm talks about his Unusual Day, where he has to convince the court he did not sleep with it.
Mike puts Plea Bargaining into Perspective:
Do you now see the problem with plea bargaining? It has turned our system into one that is supposed to convict the guilty and free the innocent into a risk-management system.  It has turned lawyers into actuaries . “Is going to trial worth the risk?” is what lawyers ask clients. Innocence has little to do with the decision to take a deal.
Back to Norm, who writes a fantastic argument against Soverign Immunity:
The state is our greatest legal fiction. I have never touched it, seen it, spoken to it or sensed its presence in any but a contrived way. Oh, I am aware that I live on a piece of Earth government by an entity known as the state of Connecticut. I have tussled with people representing it in court. I pay taxes to it. There is something we all recognize as the state of Connecticut. It is an expensive ghost we honor.
But it lacks the corporeal reality of James Tillman. It never weeps over injustice. It neither eats, nor sleeps, nor feels pangs of desire and despair. The state, you see, is a mirage of convenience. We need it to make life together possible.
Question: Why would a people who call themselves sovereign create a government that declares itself immune from the consequences of its own errors? The simple answer: We would not. But judges make it so.
And finally today, on the Vagaries of Federalism:
It is elementary that concurrent jurisdiction permits a state court to hear claims arising under state and federal law. But no principle of law permits a state to opt out of federal law under the common law bugbear of sovereign immunity.
If you don’t read regularly, you should. Norm and Mike offer something very different than your traditional conservative approach to the issue of federalism. It’s important, as members of the shooting community, to keep in mind that the state wields tremendous power, and we should think carefully when we talk about “enforcing the laws on the books”. Many of the laws that are on the books are unjust, and are enforced arbitrarily and capricously. It’s important to get a perspective of the law from people who are defense attorneys, and regularly deal with these matters. I don’t always agree with everything I read on Crime and Federalism, but their take on issues is far closer to my own beliefs than many law and order conservatives. Remember that in our community, it’s easy to run afoul of the law without realizing it, and when the heavy hand of the state comes down on you, it’ll be people like Norm and Mike we’ll suddenly find are our best friends.
It isn’t easy to break the law without knowing it. It is inevitable and unavoidable.
I will never and have never voted for a law and order candidate. If I ever hear of a candidate that supports law and disorder, he has my vote. Why? Because people are not orderly, obeying the law and observing the courtesies and considerations due others should be enough. If people are orderly, they are being forced. In other words they are being punished for followinig their own lights. Note, I did say we each owe the other courtesy and consideration of their rights. Law can be useful as a deterrent for the violation of such. But law that enforces order is itself a violation those tenets of a free people almost always.
I like to pose this question on occassion. Can you name one thing you can do that is not governed, regulated, taxed or prohibited by the state unless you break the law? Anything at all? So far, no one has come up with anything that a restriction of free will over it can’t be found. Overt acts only, not thinking about it.
Shit, sometimes I depress myself.