Apparently if you are of the left in Massachusetts some federal laws apply and others don’t:
Political commentator, author and writer for The Atlantic magazine Andrew M. Sullivan won’t have to face charges stemming from a recent pot bust at the Cape Cod National Seashore — but a federal judge isn’t happy about it.
U. S. Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings says in his decision that the case is an example of how sometimes “small cases raise issues of fundamental importance in our system of justice.”
How upset was he? This upset:
Collings says he expressed his concern that “a dismissal would result in persons in similar situations being treated unequally before the law. … persons charged with the same offense on the Cape Cod National Seashore were routinely given violation notices, and if they did not agree to [pay the fine] were prosecuted by the United States Attorney … there was no apparent reason for treating Mr. Sullivan differently from other persons charged with the same offense.”
In fact, noted Collings, there were several other defendants appearing in court the same day who were charged with the same offense. emphasis mine
In his opinion, Collings wrote that the U.S. Attorney is “is not being faithful to a cardinal principle of our legal system, i.e., that all persons stand equal before the law and are to be treated equally in a court of justice once judicial processes are invoked. It is quite apparent that Mr. Sullivan is being treated differently from others who have been charged with the same crime in similar circumstances.”
Ultimately, Collings acknowledged that he had no choice other than to allow the case to be dismissed, but “that the Court must so act does not require the Court to believe that the end result is a just one.”
I wonder if Mr. Sullivan was not such a fan of the current occupant of the White house if the US Attorney’s office would have been in such a hurry to dismiss?
Update: I beat the Other McCain to it but Vodka pundit and Dan Riehl
beat us both.
Update 2: but I did edge out hotair
