Cuban may well have been selectively targeted here. Let's not forget that the SEC used its power to get back at Joe Nacchio for refusing to go along with the warrantless wiretapping. Not to say that Nacchio (or Cuban) wasn't guilty, but there could be more here than meets the eye.
IIRC prosecutors are not allowed to selectively enforce a law. For example, if Asians are forbidden from being within Boston city limits then the government can't prosecute only Yao Ming to keep him from beating up on their basketball team.
[According to SCOTUS] "A selective prosecution claim is not a defense on the merits to the criminal charge itself, but an independent assertion that the prosecutor has brought the charge for reasons forbidden by the Constitution."[1] The defense is rarely successful; some authorities claim, for example, that there are no reported cases in at least the past century in which a court dismissed a criminal prosecution because the defendant had been targeted based on race.
That's not a careful calibration, it's an unplanned equilibrium. Laws that most people don't violate will be elaborated and made stricter until the pushback creates equilibrium.
It doesn't really matter whether the situation is by design or simply an unintended consequence. That highway speed limits are often set below the speed at which the vast majority of drivers travel means in practice that police can stop whoever they want for any reason whatsoever. It doesn't have to be a conspiracy for it to be tyranny.
Most speed laws are based on some semblance of science. Granted there is often that extra percentage, but it doesn't kill anyone to slow down a little.
"a review of available speed studies demonstrates that the posted speed limit is almost always set well below the 85th-percentile speed by as much as 8 to 12 mph"
Here's one related example. Jay-walking is done by basically everyone, but there have been studies showing that enforcement, at least in the south, has almost exclusively targeted blacks.
Are you suggesting that jaywalking laws exist to target blacks exclusively? Given that pretty much every jurisdiction on North America has these laws on the books, that's a stretch.
Remember, I'm responding to the allegation that laws are specifically designed so that everyone breaks them, not that there is selective targeting.
First, I don't agree that laws are "calibrated" (by design) such that most people are likely to break them.
However...
"I'm responding to the allegation that laws are specifically designed so that everyone breaks them, not that there is selective targeting."
Consider that the selective targeting aspect is far more important than whether the laws were designed so that they facilitate selective targeting, or just happen to facilitate selective targeting. Either way, selective targeting is something that should be avoided.
I think the secret law was that airlines couldn't tell you you were on the watch-list. Now they can, but can be fined for telling you that you're on the watch-list without you being on the watch-list.
Yes, this is a stupid law. I hope Obama shit-cans the TSA.
