Last week the House of Representatives, by a margin of more than 10 to 1, approved a bill that would make assaulting a police officer a federal crime. The lopsided vote on the Protect and Serve Act was a portrait in bipartisan cowardice that vividly showed how readily politicians forsake their oaths of office to keep their hold on power, argues Jacob Sullum, who says the bill is redundant and unconstitutional.
Assaults on police officers are already illegal in all 50 states, Sullum notes, and there is no reason to think local law enforcement agencies are reluctant to pursue such cases. In any case, the Constitution does not give Congress the authority to fight local crime, and the interstate angles mentioned by the bill are so oblique that they could justify federal prosecution of pretty much any assault (or attempted assault) on a cop. If the alleged assailant drove on an interstate highway or used a weapon produced in another state, for instance, that would be enough to make a federal case out of it.
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