As I trust you’re all aware, one of the tenets of public choice theory is that government officials will do what’s in their best interest, so forget all the high-sounding talk about the public interest, justice, and so forth. In this column Paul Craig Roberts discusses the frightful reality of federal prosecutors dredging up cases against people just so they can look busy and important.
Roberts is absolutely correct. We have so many criminal statutes, often vaguely worded, that prosecutors who want to nail someone can easily conjure up a case. The case may ruin the defendant’s life, but what the heck does that matter if it advances your career?
This is a serious problem with no easy solution. Ideally, judges would declare these vague statutes unenforceable and roast prosecutors who brought vexatious litigation like the cases Roberts mentions into their courtrooms. Alas, that rarely happens.
