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To: TexasGator

I agree, but these are criminal offenses. It doesn’t matter if we suddenly decide to call them “civil”, they meet the definition of criminal prosecutions. You can call a giraffe an antelope, but that does not make it so.


78 posted on 04/14/2015 1:17:25 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Boogieman; TexasGator
>> It doesn’t matter if we suddenly decide to call them “civil” <<

There's no "suddenly" involved here. Not in the least. For hundreds of years in common law jurisdictions, judges have had the unilateral authority to jail a person who is in civil contempt of court. Neither jury nor "prosecution" need be involved.

Recent (in)famous examples of judge-ordered detention for civil contempt have included (a) the jailing of Bill Clinton's girl-buddy, Susan McDougall, during the Whitewater investigation; and (b) the similar detention of NY Times reporter, Judith Miller, during the Plame-Wilson contre-temps.

You can maintain as long as you want that civil imprisonment for contempt is a criminal prosecution. But you're basically butting your head against a brick wall. All the complaining in the world is not going to change the crystal-clear and long-running distinction in common law between civil contempt and the criminal law.

116 posted on 04/14/2015 3:22:49 PM PDT by Hawthorn
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