Category: Law, Philosophy of
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Nat Hentoff on ‘Hate Crime’ Laws
The very idea of a 'hate crime' is an absurdity to anyone who can think clearly. Is this why it is so beloved of the Left? Hats off to Hentoff for a fine explanation in this 5:56 minute YouTube video of what is so wrong and dangerous and unconstitutional about 'hate crime' legislation.
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Of Cats and Mice, Laws and Criminals
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, The Waste Books, tr. R. J. Hollingdale, New York Review Books, 1990, p. 101: Certain rash people have asserted that, just as there are no mice where there are no cats, so no one is possessed where there are no exorcists. Lichtenberg's observation puts me in mind of anarchists who say that where…
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The Stalinization of Trump Derangement Syndrome: “Show Me the Man, and I’ll Find You the Crime”
From a Cato Policy Report: . . . Alan Dershowitz discusses his time litigating cases in the old Soviet Union. He was always taken by the fact that they could prosecute anybody they wanted because some of the statutes were so vague. Dershowitz points out that this was a technique developed by Beria, the infamous…
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Fake Law
Here: Welcome to the rise of fake law. Just as fake news spreads ideologically motivated misinformation with a newsy veneer, fake law brings us judicial posturing, virtue signaling, and opinionating masquerading as jurisprudence. And just as fake news augurs the end of authoritative reporting, fake law portends the diminution of law's legitimacy and the warping…
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Ad Ignorantiam and the Law
The day before yesterday I wrote, In a criminal case the probative bar is set very high: the accused has to be shown guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Here too there seems to be a legitimate appeal to ignorance: if it has not been shown that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the…