Thursday, June 9, 2011

Justice Scalia Is Getting Damn Tired of Vague Laws

Oh Justice Scalia was Justice Scalia today and one does not have to be a lawyer to enjoy that. A very good Legal blog has some of the Scalia's great quotes today. That is Josh Blackman's Blog

Justice Scalia understand that Congress folks that want to appease the folks back home and get all the credit but make no hard choices is making a mess of things.

We face a Congress that puts forth an ever-increasing volume of laws in general, and of criminal laws in particular. It should be no surprise that as the volume increases, so do the number of imprecise laws. And no surprise that our indulgence of imprecisions that violate the Constitution encourages imprecisions that violate the Constitution. Fuzzy, leave-the-details-to-be-sorted-out-by-the-courts legislation is attractive to the Congressman who wants credit for addressing a national problem but does not have the time (or perhaps the votes) to grapple with the nitty-gritty. In the field of criminal law, at least, it is time to call a halt. I do not think it would be a radical step—indeed, I think it would be highly responsible—to limit ACCA to the named violent crimes. Congress can quickly add what it wishes. Because the majority prefers to let vagueness reign, I respectfully dissent.

And that is not all he had to say. See Scalia on Vagueness and Incentives for the Executive and Legislative Branch . In fact HE EVEN QUOTES Montesquieu. See Justice Scalia Channels Montesquieu in Talk America

And to top it off he rags on the use of Legislative history again. See Justice Scalia still hating on legislative history in DePierre v. United States

All in all a fun day.

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