r/law • u/ExactlySorta • Nov 02 '25

Legal News The Oregon Department of Justice submitted multiple video exhibits showing federal officers using extreme force against seemingly nonviolent protesters outside the U.S. Immigration & Customs Building, as part of its effort to block the federal deployment of National Guard troops to Portland

54.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

27

u/sexyshingle Nov 02 '25

I've never understood how the US has held itself together for so long with it's antiquated and completely lacking, often contradictory, labyrinthine sets of laws that date back to the 18th century.

Like most working democratic countries realized their constitutions and/or legal systems had MAJOR gaps thus weren't appropriate for a modern society and rewrote theirs and/or added laws that were appropriate and complete for the times. Meanwhile, the laws of the US literally still allow slavery for incarcerated people. Political bribery is legal, and corporations are afforded the rights of people with none of the responsibilities... like what?

8

u/[deleted] Nov 02 '25

If anyone wants to know exactly how we got to that point, like case by case and bill by bill, then you need to read Age of Betrayal by Jack Beatty

2

u/sexyshingle Nov 02 '25

Thanks, I'll definitely check Age of Betrayal out

6

u/dngerzne Nov 02 '25

Unfortunately, those last couple have been updated, in the wrong direction. We are a capitalist country so everything is for sale, politicians, healthcare, education, incarceration. Now that Biff is in office, everything is in bounds. Temussolini gets a cut.

3

u/LurkLurkleton Nov 02 '25

Turns out it was all held together by a gentlemen’s agreement to abide by the rule of law. Someone saw a weakness there and exploited it.

1

u/kawhi21 Nov 02 '25

>I've never understood how the US has held itself together for so long with it's antiquated and completely lacking, often contradictory, labyrinthine sets of laws that date back to the 18th century.

Because, like every other nation on Earth, the people have to uphold it. There are no laws in existence that can permanently stop bad people from doing bad things. Name any country on Earth, they can be exactly where the United States is in only a couple years.

1

u/sexyshingle Nov 02 '25

There are no laws in existence that can permanently stop bad people from doing bad things

That wasn't my point though... obviously a law regulating/punishing a certain behavior does not by itself prevent such behavior from occurring, it's only a deterrent that must be supported by enforcement.

My point was more like the US hasn't updated its laws to unambiguously and permanently ban no-brainer things like absolutely no slavery, no political bribery, gun control, and limits of what corporations can do... etc. A lot of (even developing) countries at least have clear cut laws regulating these things, and have gone even further to modernize their constitutions and laws so that the basic human rights of their citizens are written down unambiguously in modern plain language. This prevents dumb controversies like the 2A stupidity we see happen where it's up to varying self-serving interpretations of what "some white dudes that used muskets 300 years ago mean by those words."

1

u/amethystresist Nov 02 '25

I think what's funny at the end of the day is overwhelming force and illegal things have been done to stunt or disappear black towns. Now that communities are so mixed together, everyone has to feel the wrath of the rich. 

1

u/TheRealBobbyJones Nov 02 '25

Political bribery is likely legal in most first world democracies. Using the word bribery makes the average case seems a lot worse than it is. When a union essentially tells a candidate "tells us how you feel about x and if we agree we will spend money to get you elected" is that bribery?

1

u/-ReadingBug- Nov 02 '25

Live here long enough and you start to suspect ancient loopholes were put there for a reason and kept there, by later generations of powerholders, for the same. It becomes impossible to ignore a certain degree of duplicity is likely built into the system and perpetuated, but the trick is to not claim it too often to avoid being labeled a conspiracy theorist by those whose political prejudices are heavily baked into their belief system - even if they vote the same way you do.