>I think you're under-reacting. For the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary >Committee to propose a course of action that eliminates due process, and >would in fact legalize vigilantism, is deeply disturbing. Indeed. I would go one step further. What we are talking about here isn't vigilantism. It is something much worse - privilege in its literal sense of "private law". Vigilantism - the Committee of Vigilance as it was sometimes called - was or is a reaction to a lack of formal law and law enforcement. Where there aren t courts or police people keep the peace better or worse (usually worse) by themselves. The system that Hatch is proposing is private law. A certain class is allowed the freedom to determine what will be done to others without the protections of the legal system. The class is "a law unto itself". Literally. This runs exactly counter to the most basic traditions of American law. If my neighbor steals from me I can't break into his house, shoot his dog and set fire to his couch. Even if I really really want to and it would make an example of him. We don't have a samurai class with the right of "cutting down and walking away". We don't have nobility who have the right to Low and Middle Justice. With all due respect to Senator Hatch we don't need one.
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