From Scold-and-Release district attorneys and judges to Homeland Security and ICE –
It’s not just criminals breaking the law, it’s our government.

Founding Father John Adams called a republic “a government of laws, not of men,” referencing the work of 17th century English political theorist John Harrington. The concept is simple: a government of laws means reasonable laws are applied fairly to all, while a government of men means the exercise of political power for the betterment of some at the expense of others.

Watching the recent actions of our state Supreme Court in exercising power they don’t have, flouting the constitution to further a political agenda, it’s clear that we are now living in a government of men. It goes far beyond our state’s high court.

• Scold-and-Release DAs are legislating instead of prosecuting, effectively rewriting statutes in their jurisdictions by choosing which laws they will enforce and which they will ignore.
• Criminals are emboldened and public safety is undermined by the justice system’s failure to enforce the law.
• There is so little coverage of these failures in the mainstream media that the public believes they understand the laws and that they are being enforced. But they’re wrong on both counts.
• Local law enforcement officers in some jurisdictions help protect and hide lawbreakers from federal law enforcement.
• Federal agencies have created policies and programs to end-run laws they find inconvenient or conflict with their political goals.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of MacIver's closer look at how the comparatively unremarkable case of a 20-year-old man recently arrested in Milwaukee in a stolen car with stolen goods and illegal drugs demonstrates just how far we’ve strayed from “a government of laws, not of men.”