Benjamin Franklin once said, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”  But what would Franklin have given up to secure a lot of permanent safety—stopping a sometimes lethal microbe that has already killed thousands of Americans?  Like so much else in our world during these trying times, his maxim now faces a harsh test from COVID-19.

Try to talk to someone about how a court of law has engineered your financial ruin and, in so doing, has utterly ignored statutory and constitutional imperatives, and it is likely that you will be met with a blank, glazed stare.  After all, America has a good legal system, right?  Say what you will about America’s behavior in the Middle East and that nasty little torture racket at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and goodness knows where else—America’s legal system is…well….it is the best system there is.

Right?

History

In the United States, habitual offender laws, commonly referred to as "three-strikes laws" were first implemented on March 7, 1994, and are part of the Department of Justice Anti-Violence Strategy.  These laws require two previous convictions in order to be applicable and sometimes make life in prison mandatory.  Twenty-eight states have some form of a three-strikes law.  Its purpose is to drastically increase the punishment of those convicted of more than two felonies, but, in some instances, convictions of more than just one criminal offense, not necessarily a felony, will still result in harsher penalties as it does in Washington, D.C.

Warped Incentives

“Prosecutors have more power than anyone, in many respects, over the lives of the average person,” said Daniel Medwed, professor at the Northeastern University School of Law. “But there is almost no accountability, no transparency, and the public isn’t paying attention—that is a very, very combustible concoction.

Senator Rand Paul took a lot of heat from establishment Conservatives and some in the media for his unwavering stand against the Patriot Act.  The party line that emerged said that we are now vulnerable to terrorist attack.  Even Senator Paul, himself, said he was being accused of damaging America’s defenses against such attacks.

The nation's attention turned to Oregon a few years ago when a group calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom seized control of part of a federal wildlife refuge.  The citizens were protesting the harsh sentences given to members of the Hammond ranching family.  The Hammonds were accused of allowing fires set on their property to spread onto federal land.

The recent arrest of the chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, of Chinese tech giant Huawei is a classic example of the United States legal system overstepping its bounds.  The CFO was released on bail in Canada, setting her up for a lengthy legal fight over extradition to the United States.  However, her arrest should never have happened in the first place.