January 6th

 

Bad to the Bone

And when I walk the streets
Kings and Queens step aside
Every woman I meet
They all stay satisfied
I wanna tell ya pretty baby
Well ya see I make my own
I'm here to tell ya honey
That I'm bad to the bone

You can be bad, but is being bad is not always criminal.

The purpose of a legislature is to pass laws.  Laws are passed to create penalties for behavior that the sovereign, the People of the United States, wishes to penalize.  One of the functions of a legislature is to determine if that bad behavior was, or should have been, addressed by existing laws.  If they are not, then new laws may need to be passed.  It is not merely the function of the legislature to pass laws that penalize bad behavior that is not addressed by existing laws.  It is the responsibility of that legislature to pass along any information that suggests that existing laws have been violated.

A series of actions happened on January 6^th at the US Capitol that appears to be bad behavior.  A select committee of the House has been established to examine what occurred on Jan 6^th. If there was behavior that the People wish to penalize, the committee is charged with determining if that behavior is already addressed by existing laws. If there are behaviors that are not addressed by existing laws, then they might consider laws that would address them. 

If there are bad behaviors that are not covered by existing laws, bills of attainder are prohibited by Article I of the US Constitution.  Passing laws after the fact can not penalize actions that were legal at the time the action occurred.  Laws can be enacted to address this behavior in the future.  However just as bill of attainders are NOT allowed by the legislature, if the legislature finds evidence of bad behavior that IS criminal under existing laws, it has a responsibility to pass that information along to the proper authorities.  Investigations by the legislature may discover behavior that should be prohibited in the future and laws may be proposed and enacted to address that behavior.  This is a proper legislative function. 

But if bad behavior is already covered by existing laws, no legislation is appropriate.  However any facts of the possible violations of those existing laws should be passed along to the proper authorities.  Just because those authorities did not discover that behavior by themselves, does not mean that the laws were not broken. If you are bad, and your actions were criminal, then you can be prosecuted, regardless of who disclosed that criminal behavior.  If a criminal act was committed, then who uncovered evidence of that act is irrelevant.