Maureen Mackey with Fox News writes that in Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch’s new, co-written bestseller book, “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law,” Gorsuch reveals that in all his years as a judge, he’s seen many cases where the sheer volume and complexity of laws have “swallowed up ordinary people.”
Gorsuch writes that “we now have so many federal criminal laws covering so many things that one scholar suggests that ‘there is no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime.'” He calls out serious cases of personal freedom infringement resulting from too many laws – while also highlighting some ridiculous and almost unbelievable examples of laws still on the books, such as the selling of a mattress without a warning label being a federal crime.
The Fox News article may be read in full HERE.
My brothers and sisters, this writer appreciates Justice Gorsuch’s views in this matter and has commented many times in prior articles about the pervasiveness of government laws, rules, regulations and ordinances at all levels, not only at the federal level.
As an example, let’s consider a coffee cup. There is the cutting down of necessary trees, making the paper, mining of the sand to make glass, and the manufacturing process for the production of paper, glass or ceramics – all of which are highly regulated. The manufacturing plant’s furnaces, inks/dyes, waste disposal procedures, and employee working conditions and pay are all subject to government regulation, as are the requirements regarding the final product’s packaging, labeling and plastic linings for products designed to hold certain hot or cold liquids.
Please don’t take from the foregoing that I’m advocating against truly necessary and reasonable safety regulations for mass-manufactured items (especially when hazardous materials and wastes are involved), but it seems that if we lived our lives from the perspective of a biblical worldview, in the fear (reverence) of God, and doing all things with excellence and concern for others – as unto the Lord (see Colossians 3:23), then the unfathomable number and overlapping nature of the laws, rules, regulations and ordinances in our society would become unnecessary overnight!
Yes, there will always be the issue of sin and those who ‘cut corners’ at the risk of others’ safety, but sin is a matter of the heart that is not resolved by civil rulemaking (see Jeremiah 17:9-10). The top-to-bottom governmental regulation of everything in our daily lives to avoid ‘sinful’ actions or to prevent any conceivable risk is not the answer, especially when laws become so pervasive, overlapping and incident-specific that every person in our country, according to Justice Gorsuch, could be “indicted for some federal crime.”
Here are the above-reference scriptures:
Colossians 3:23 (NKJV)
“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men…”.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 (NKJV)
“The heart is deceitful above all things, [a]nd desperately wicked; [w]ho can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, [e]ven to give every man according to his ways, [a]ccording to the fruit of his doings.”