Posted on 07/30/2011 7:11:29 PM PDT by antidemoncrat
A federal judge has struck down a Florida drug law that convicts suspects of a drug offense even if they are unaware that the controlled substance is illegal.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Judge: Obviously the state laws didn't make that clear to you. Case dismissed!
Gotta love Federal Judges.
I know we are talking about a state, but with the growth of laws, everyone will a criminal at some point.
This is a tough one for me. I always hated the excuse ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Heck in my own neighborhood the cops busted up a social gathering (party) in our private community area because someone called the cops on a noise complaint at 9:30pm. They had a DJ playing.
The cops said turn it off and go home. Then a neighborhood cop acted like everyone knew the law when he told us later (different cop here) that the law is any complaint means the party has to stop. Well I looked it up and they were wrong...that little law was ruled unconstitutional by the state supreme court, so now we have a specific law that says you can make XX decibles before 11pm and YY decibles after 11pm. And you have to make 30 minutes of noise after 11pm for the cops to come out.
So the cops are enforcing fake laws and if you try to tell them they are wrong they will jack you up and now you have a bigger problem on your hands. Fact is our laws have gone crazy and we are trying to legislate way too much.
An honorable person considers the rights of his neighbors as well as his. Back when I lived close to neighbors and drag raced, I never power tuned my cars at night. Only for a few brief moments during the day.
“Suspect: Gee Judge....I didn’t know it was illegal to rape and kill that girl.”
What I immediately thought of was, “Gee, judge, my daughter mailed that home from college addressed to herself, so we just put it in her room. I had no idea there was dope in it.”
You are subject to more federal, state, and local direct laws than you could read in your lifetime. That doesn't give you a start on the administrative rules.
It was > 50,000 pages back in the 80s.
Too many laws, too many lawyers, 10 was good for God. I can remember 10.
/johnny
You are a thoughtful person.
This might be useful... as they are making vitamins a ‘controlled substance only available by prescription’
That disappeared when an act no longer had to be malum in se to be a a crime and intent to commit the act was required for a conviction.
No one can know what the law is any more, which is itself a violation of due process. Our legal system deserves very little respect. Jury nullification on a massive scale is what is needed.
The Florida law, as written, goes further than "ignorance of the law is no excuse," to "ignorance of the facts is no excuse." It's not just that the state did not have to prove, for instance, that a defendant knew that cocaine is a controlled substance; the state also did not have to prove that the defendant knew that he was in possession of cocaine.
Any time I have told a cop that I didn’t know what the speed limit was and was unaware I was speeding, I’ve still gotten a ticket.
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there it that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted—and you create a nation of lawbreakers—and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
-Atlas Shrugged
"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what is will be tomorrow."
-- James Madison, Federalist no. 62, February 27, 1788
I agree and an honorable neighbor also respects his other neighbors wish to celebrate their 50th birthday in a community field/park with other neighbors.
That is true, tax payers provide community service centers for people, some idiots are just two dumb to use them.
Well, there are some laws that I would think can be assumed to be within the realm of common knowledge, (murder, rape, theft, vandalism, etc) based on the fact that people have gone through elementary-level history and social studies classes. Oh wait a second. Never mind. Schools don’t teach civics much anymore.
The problem I have with the “Ignorance is no excuse” statement is the sheer number of laws/administrative rules one is subject to, many of which make little if any sense, or are those cookie jars the governments’ hands need not be in.
Just Google search for ‘stupid laws’, and you’ll find plenty of such examples. Or Texas’s recent-ish law requiring adults to be buckled in the car, including the backseat. Ridiculous.
Yeah, back in the 50’s and 60’s, if you were caught breaking the law and pleaded ignorance you were generally told “Ignorance of the law is no excuse”. My how times have changed.
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