The House fire-alarm episode shows why the justices should block the Justice Department’s novel interpretation of a powerful law to go after Jan. 6 rioters.
A Jan. 6 case with underrated implications for American democracy is sitting without fanfare on the Supreme Court’s docket. The court might be inclined to turn it down to avoid exposing itself to a partisan maelstrom. Butinvolving Rep. Jamaal Bowman and a fire alarm on Capitol Hill shows the need for the justices to clean up lower courts’ mess sooner rather than later.to charge about 300 Jan. 6 Capitol riot defendants.
Perhaps prosecutors thought this legal maneuver could be one-and-done, aimed at Jan. 6 participants, and no one else, because of the singular gravity of that event. That’s not how criminal law works, especially when partisan politics is involved. Now that the statute’s traditional limits have been removed, it’s no longer clear what sort of mischief and disruption in and around Capitol Hill is covered by the felony punishable by up to 20 years.
Whether there’s fire in the Bowman scandal or merely smoke , the fierce debate around the incident shows how the flawed Jan. 6 precedent has raised the legal stakes when congressional disruptions occur.Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in April on why the Justice Department was not pursuing major felony charges against progressive protesters who allegedly tried to interrupt a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
The party out of power tends to see the greatest threat to democracy from political repression. The party in power tends to see the greatest threat to democracy from populist mayhem. If the Supreme Court doesn’t correct prosecutors’ application of this powerful law, the United States is more likely to experience a cycle of both.
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