No. of Recommendations: 16
Then change the law. Don't ignore it. If there is no consensus to change the law, then democracy has spoken, and comply with the law as it is.
Democracy speaks in many ways. It speaks in setting the laws that are on the books. But it also speaks in how those laws are enforced.
Consider marijuana. Possession and sale of marijuana is a crime. A rather serious federal crime. Legally, it's no different htan dealing heroin. Yet the federal government simply doesn't enforce that, for the most part. Not because the law has been changed, but because voters have elected legislators and Presidents who do not allocate any priority to prosecuting people for possession and sale of marijuana. Both Democrats and Republicans. There's literally thousands and thousands of people who are blatantly violating federal drug laws - advertising their services - and making millions of dollars doing it, but President Trump and AG Bondi (like President Biden and AG Garland before them) are doing nothing about it. Even though those would literally be the easiest drug felony convictions anyone could ever get.
Law involves both the substantive statutes on the books and the processes and procedures by which it is enforced. Laws aren't enforced mechanically. Their implementation is shaped by the choices of governors, mayors, police commissioners, prosecutors, and attorneys general. Which is why so many (most?) of those people are elected at the state level - a recognition that the people also need to speak democratically to the folks who shape the application of the law, not just its content.
The criminal justice system is more than just the penal code - it's also the manifold choices of all the folks involved in how that penal code is implemented, and it's supposed to be that way.
