Are the rights we think we have enforceable? Or are our rights subject to the “discretion” of those charged with enforcing them? It’s beginning to look that way to me.
My first post on “Discretionary Law Enforcement” concerned the recent Supreme Court ruling in Castle Rock v. Gonzales. In that case, Jessica Gonzales alleged that the Castle Rock police department did nothing to enforce a restraining order against her estranged husband, despite her repeated calls to the police to inform them that he had abducted their three daughters in violation of the order. While the Castle Rock Police Department claimed that they did do something, those aren’t the grounds on which the case was decided: In a 7-2 ruling, the Court ruled that Jessica Gonzales did not have a constitutional right to police enforcement of the restraining order against her husband. What the police did or didn’t do was moot; they had the right to choose to do nothing, whether they did so or not.