Hacker News Reader

There's definitely a great evil to laws which are either selectively or rarely enforced. Eventually they turn cancerous and are abused.

For example, look at the Logan Act and its justification for spying on politicians.

View on HN

The Logan Act has literally never resulted in a prosecution. Got one indictment though, in the 19th century.

The Logan Act was used to pressure Michael Flynn into pleading guilty. That wasn't a first. It can be an effective threat without actually prosecuting anyone for it. That's more than a sufficient reason to repeal this blatantly unconstitutional law.

So if it’s never used, why is it on the books? There’s plenty of evidence that laws are abused so the government can get what they want.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com