By Dave Anderson:
I agree with Chief Justice Roberts; "just trust us" is not compatible with the concept of the rule of law.
From his opinion in a free speech case that pitted the right of creating videos and images of intense animal cruelty versus the ability of the government to regulate and ban this speech, Justice Roberts writes in response to the government's claim that they really only intend to prosecute the most extreme cases and thus the broad reading of the statute should have a gigantic implied asterisk next to it.
Not to worry, the Government says: The Executive Branch construes �48 to
reach only "extreme" cruelty, and it "neither has brought nor will
bring a prosecution for anything less." The Government hits this theme
hard, invoking its prosecutorial discretion several times. But
the First Amendment protects against the Government; it does not leave
us at the mercy of noblesse oblige. We would not uphold an
unconstitutional statute merely because the Government promised to use
it responsibly.
Just trust us is antithetical to the rule of law. It does not matter if the President who is asking for this trust is Clinton, Bush, Obama or Palin.
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