Marco Rubio in Brennan Center for Justice essays
On Crime:
False choice between rampant crime vs. overstretched prisons
Certain Roman Emperors had a practice of posting new criminal offenses so high up on columns in the Forum that subjects could not read them, nor hope to comply with them. This story is usually told as evidence of the madness and cruelty of those leaders.
As Americans, we deserve a criminal justice system that is neither mad, nor cruel, but fair and just--with criminal laws and regulations that are easy to understand and not prone to abuse.
Congress can begin the project of restoring a criminal justice system that both protects public safety and reflects our values as a free people.
We do not have to choose between the rampant criminality of the 1970s and
1980s and the overreaching criminal laws and overstretched prison resources we have today. Working together, those of us in government along with partners in civil society can work to restore an America characterized by liberty and law.
Source: Brennan Center for Justice essays, p. 98
Apr 28, 2015
On Drugs:
Legalizing would be a mistake; reduce sentences carefully
There is an emerging consensus that the time for criminal justice reform has come. But when we consider changing the sentences we impose for drug laws, we must be mindful of the great successes we have had in restoring law and order to America's
cities since the 1980s drug epidemic destroyed lives, families, and entire neighborhoods. I personally believe that legalizing drugs would be a great mistake and that any reductions in sentences for drug crimes should be made with great care.
Source: Brennan Center for Justice essays, p. 95
Apr 28, 2015
On Government Reform:
Regulatory agencies shouldn't write criminal law
Congress must rein in out-of-control regulatory agencies. It should stop delegating additional criminal lawmaking authority to regulators. The public has long understood the burden unaccountable regulators place on business & ordinary Americans. In many
cases, regulations have become more consequential than the statutes that they purportedly execute. It is for this reason that I have proposed that Congress establish a national regulatory budget, which would require that new, costly regulations be offset
by the repeal of other existing regulations. I have also joined many of my colleagues in supporting legislation that would require congressional review of major regulations. It is time we apply similar attention to regulations with criminal implications:
Regulations should be reviewed by Congress and potentially offset by the simplification and repeal of older regulations. Better still, Congress in the future should refuse to delegate new criminal lawmaking authority to unelected regulators.
Source: Brennan Center for Justice essays, p. 96-7
Apr 28, 2015
Page last updated: Dec 07, 2018