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Sheriff making up law

2009-10-20 17:16:40.430647+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, has been using a made-up law citation, “8 USC 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv)(b)(iii)”, as justification for some of his actions.

He claimed the LII as the source of that law. There is no such sub-section in the US Code. No such text appears on our web site, or ever has — a fact easily discovered by reporters who went to our site.  Instead, the text in Arpaio’s presser was made up by an anti-immigration group in Connecticut.  It looks awfully official, though.  You can read this story in newspapers and blogs here, here, and here — and you probably should, because this is the Internet, and who’s to say I’m not making things up, too?  I thought Stephen Lemons’ story in the Phoenix New Times gave a good account of the legal-information side of the story.

[ related topics: moron Law Current Events Law Enforcement ]

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#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-20 17:50:06.515867+00 by: ebradway

I'm sure, as you're getting more involved with politics, you realize the difficulty the folks "on the ground" have trying to figure out the rules and regulations (i.e., laws). I deal with it all the time with my work for the DOI - it effects niddling details like what airline I'm allowed to travel on (not necessarily lowest cost) or what hotel I'm allowed to stay in on official business. Of course, it doesn't excuse someone for being an ass, unnecessarily.