Due Process for My Cronies, But Not For You

Hans Bader  October 14, 2016

The concept of “mens rea” – or requiring proof of a “guilty mind” – helps protect due process in a world where people are subject to thousands of obscure and vague laws and regulations.

Politicians often have double standards about whether such proof should be required for a conviction. Many support it for their political allies, but oppose it for their ideological enemies. They also often oppose it for ordinary people.

For example, when the FBI declined to recommend former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s indictment for violating the Espionage Act, the Center for American Progress, a partisan think-tank Clinton was “instrumental” in founding, celebrated it as supposedly applying “a legal concept called mens rea.”.....To Read More......