Your answer to question two is the first truly satisfying answer I have come across for why no criminal conviction is needed. And I follow several scholar/bloggers like Ilya Somin who have been regularly covering this issue as it unfolds.
I don't know if you'll ever see this comment, James, but a few Ambrose Bierce quotes and a few lines in this piece just came together for me. Maybe you'll get a chuckle from them (of what sort is another matter).
“Random state officials,” authorized by state law to take action, is exactly how federalism works, exactly how Article II works, exactly what the Constitution expects, and exactly what our conservatism is supposed to conserve.
Shouldn’t a conservative try to avoid radical actions? This has never, ever happened before!
The bedrock of conservatism is that we follow the laws and traditions that were laid down for us.
And from "The Devil's Dictionary":
RADICALISM, n. The conservatism of to-morrow injected into the affairs of to-day.
CONSERVATIVE, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes being corrected." -G.K. Chesterton
Your answer to question two is the first truly satisfying answer I have come across for why no criminal conviction is needed. And I follow several scholar/bloggers like Ilya Somin who have been regularly covering this issue as it unfolds.
I don't know if you'll ever see this comment, James, but a few Ambrose Bierce quotes and a few lines in this piece just came together for me. Maybe you'll get a chuckle from them (of what sort is another matter).
“Random state officials,” authorized by state law to take action, is exactly how federalism works, exactly how Article II works, exactly what the Constitution expects, and exactly what our conservatism is supposed to conserve.
Shouldn’t a conservative try to avoid radical actions? This has never, ever happened before!
The bedrock of conservatism is that we follow the laws and traditions that were laid down for us.
And from "The Devil's Dictionary":
RADICALISM, n. The conservatism of to-morrow injected into the affairs of to-day.
CONSERVATIVE, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes being corrected." -G.K. Chesterton