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Can a U.S. mayor enforce an International Criminal Court warrant? Has President Trump found a new legal path to tariffs after earlier setbacks? And can the government really seize a $95,000 airplane over a six-pack of beer? Richard Epstein, John Yoo, and Charles C. W. Cooke unpack these legal controversies before closing with a spirited debate over which Supreme Court justices deserve a place on the judicial Mount Rushmore.
Discussion (1)
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Finally caught this one, and the six pack issue reminded me of an event in my youths that is somewhat similar.
In 1987 or 1988, the summer, my friends and I decided to drive from Vermont to Maine to catch a Monsters of Rock concert. In Vermont at that time, it was legal for us to purchase alcohol even though we were all about 20 years old, as the state had raised the drinking age to 21 a couple years prior but anyone already 18 at the time was grandfathered in.
So what do you do when you're going to a concert in another state? You buy your booze in Vermont, put it in a cooler, and head east. What happened, though, is that we got pulled over for speeding on a back road in NH, and the officer decided that a "wing-tip" search was in order, which allowed him access to search the hatchback trunk where the cooler was, and he could see it. Apparently if it's reachable from the back seat, and it was, it's within the "wing-tips" of the occupants.
He found the booze. We had not been drinking, it was like 10:00AM or something, we had planned to get to our hotel and hang out for the day before going to the concert.
We did not go to the concert.
The officer found that a) we had booze in the car, b) none of us were over 21, so c) he could haul us into the police station for illegal possession of alcohol.
We had to call our parents to get one to come out and drive us back, literally have a dad drive from Vermont to middle New Hampshire, else we'd be stuck in jail until a Monday arraignment. If we were released to a "dad", we still had to appear in court and pay a fine like a ticket and be done with it. AND they confiscated the "illegal" alcohol.
A couple of notes:
The window for outrage on this (and I was outraged, I felt like the police went way overboard with this and at most it's a ticket and we're on our way for the speeding, *maybe* a citation for possession and I could even see confiscation, but holding us in a cell and only agreeing to release us to a parent, or we'd have to stay in jail all weekend for possession of an item legally purchased in another state.
The six pack case rang a bell, but that one was so far out of whack with what should be reality, it makes my little NH adventure pale, but it struck me as the same type of inconsistency and misadministration of law between the states, which can give the police enforcement powers that they do not legally possess, but go right ahead and abuse, regardless.