You hear a lot about how police officers have to be allowed to shoot first and ask questions later because it’s so dangerous for them on the streets. But many of them are against gun safety laws which seem counter-intuitive. Some are going so far as to refuse to enforce them:
Law enforcement’s reaction to the recent assault weapons law approved by Gov. JB Pritzker has been largely negative, with many sheriffs saying they believe the law is illegal.
More than 80 sheriffs, including those in Peoria, Woodford and Tazewell counties, have said they will not ask those with a valid Firearm Owners Identification card to register their weapons as required by the law. Others have gone further, saying they will not arrest people “solely for noncompliance with the act.”
But can a sheriff refuse to enforce a law? Is it legal for a sheriff to decide what laws are legal, or is that the purview of the courts? The Illinois Constitution establishes the office of the sheriff and states that, in addition to duties and powers provided by ordinance, they also have the “duties, powers or functions derived from common law or historical precedent unless altered by law or county ordinance.”
That doesn’t sound like discretion to me but what do I know? These sheriffs aren’t the only ones who refuse to enforce gun laws.
Meanwhile,, the right is challenging the long established norm of prosecutorial discretion – at least when it comes to criminalizing abortion:
GOP lawmakers see a major flaw in their states’ near-total abortion bans: Some local prosecutors won’t enforce them.
Republicans in Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Texas — frustrated by progressive district attorneys who have publicly pledged not to bring charges under their state’s abortion laws — have introduced bills that would allow state officials to either bypass the local prosecutors or kick them out of office if their abortion-related enforcement is deemed too lenient.
In Texas, one of several bills lawmakers are pushing would allow the state attorney general or a private individual to ask a court to remove a district attorney who fails to prosecute abortion-related offenses and other “crimes of violence.” They also plan to introduce a bill to allow any resident to bring civil claims against anyone suspected of “aiding and abetting” an abortion.
In Georgia, legislators want to create a prosecutorial oversight commission that could discipline or remove local prosecutors who demonstrate a “willful and persistent failure to perform his or her duties.”
A bill introduced in the South Carolina House would give the state attorney general the power to prosecute abortion cases — something currently under the purview of local district attorneys.
And in Indiana, proposed legislation would allow a legislatively appointed special prosecutor to enforce laws when a local prosecutor declines to do so.
The mounting tension between Republican lawmakers and local prosecutors over abortion is one part of a broader fight over diverging approaches to criminal justice — seen in recent battles over drug laws, property crimes and other offenses. As more prosecutors, particularly in progressive metropolises in red states, win elections by breaking with the decadeslong tough-on-crime mindset and running as a check on GOP lawmakers, conservative state officials say they now need to rein in their excesses.
“Whatever issue we’re talking about — whether it’s marijuana, abortion, enforcing homicide statutes, enforcing whatever the law is — the law is on the books, and the law is supposed to be applied equally across the board among our citizens,” said Republican Indiana Sen. Aaron Freeman, who is sponsoring the special prosecutor bill. “If we’re just going to basically ignore the Constitution and our republic and just do whatever the hell we want, well, that’s a society that scares the hell out of me.”
GOP officials are also exploring nonlegislative tactics. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, a Democrat, over his public pledge not to bring charges under the state’s 15-week abortion ban. Warren sued in federal court to be reinstated, and while the judge agreed that DeSantis’ action violated the state’s constitution, he ruled that only a state court could reverse the governor’s decision.
The moves have left local prosecutors chafing at what they see as encroachment on their executive branch powers, tactics that Warren called “ridiculous” and “undemocratic.”
“It’s a political war being waged against people for speaking their minds,” he said.
Nonpartisan legal groups view this trend as a threat to prosecutors’ ability to use their best judgment on which cases are worth pursuing and how to allocate their offices’ finite resources to best serve the community that elected them.
So police officers have discretion but prosecutors don’t, depending on which laws the Republicans want them to enforce? Good to know.