By now, the observation’s familiar, maybe banal: How law’s enforced matters. It matters as much, maybe more, than what the law books say our rights and duties are. As long as it’s not enforced, a law against eating fried chicken with a fork is funny. But more often than not the stakes for people’s lives aren’t merely academic or the least bit funny.
Take enforcement of federal law. The Supreme Court’s made some important decisions about this topic recently.