This State Really Doesn't Want Its Residents to Know the Law

Just weeks ago in Florida, a father spending spring break on the beach with his family was fined $25 dollars for using metal sand tools on Panama City Beach, a law he had no idea he was breaking.

When this long-time resident of Panama City Beach asked law enforcement if he could see the actual text of the statute he was breaking, the officer on the scene immediately called for backup and threatened the father with jail time.

This is, unfortunately, not an isolated instance of the state penalizing individuals for breaking laws they did not know they were committing, and then denying these citizens the right to actually see these legal codes firsthand.

By allowing the state to punish individuals for an act committed without foreknowledge of wrongdoing or any proof of criminal intent, the entire justice system loses one of its primary components of the right to due process. After all, how can one commit a crime they had no knowledge they were committing? How is this a manifestation of rule by consent?

In Georgia, the potential to become an accidental criminal is rather high, since residents aren’t even allowed to see copies of legal code without first applying for a license and paying a hefty fine to the state. And even then, what residents are provided with doesn’t exactly explain the law in full.

Source: This State Really Doesn't Want Its Residents to Know the Law - Foundation for Economic Education - Working for a free and prosperous world - < https://fee.org/articles/this-state-really-doesnt-want-its-residents-to-know-the-law/ >