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March 10, 2023

Our federal government is out of control.  That fact is no longer even debatable.  Numerous groups are looking for ways to remedy that situation before it’s too late.  One such group is the Convention of States movement.  They’re working to bring our government to heel by using Article V of the Constitution to implement amendments for

  • fiscal accountability,
  • term limits, and
  • constraints on government overreach.

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There are numerous straightforward ideas to achieve fiscal accountability and term limits.  However, that “constraining government overreach” one is tricky.  What is overreach?  How can it be prevented in a legally enforceable way?  I have a modest proposal.

There is no greater form of government overreach than federal officials using the power of their offices to violate our Constitutionally protected rights.  Fortunately, there’s already a statute that criminalizes such actions.  Its title is “MISCONDUCT BY LAW ENFORCEMENT & OTHER GOVERNMENT ACTORS — Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law” (18 USC §242).  I’ll refer to it as the “color of law” statute for brevity. It reads:

This provision makes it a crime for someone acting under color of law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

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The “color of law” statute imposes sentences, up to and including life imprisonment or death, depending on the severity of the infraction.  Violations of a person’s rights is serious business — as it should be.

The statute has been used many times in the past — particularly in the prosecution of misbehaving local police officers.  Officers prosecuted using the law include those involved in the cases of Rodney King, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Randal Worcester, and many others.

But the law isn’t working when it comes to federal agents — particularly the FBI.  The last 14 years has treated us to a parade of civil rights violations by federal officials.

Our freedom of speech was violated when the IRS targeted conservative advocacy groups at the direction of Lois Lerner.  The FBI kicked it up a notch when it assigned agents to work with Twitter to censor inconvenient opinions about the 2020 election and COVID protocols.

Our right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure was violated when the FBI obtained travel information from Bank of America — not to investigate a crime, but to look for one.  In another case, the FBI fabricated evidence to obtain a FISA warrant against Trump campaign official Carter Page — attempting to undermine the peaceful transition of power.

Our right to freedom of religion was attacked when the FBI placed assets in the Catholic Church, looking for pro-life domestic terrorists, when no crime had even been committed.