What two concerns are raised by laws that are vague? Provide an example of each concern. Why is some vagueness inevitable in any law?
What will be an ideal response?
The two concerns are fair notice to citizens of what is criminal and the potential for discriminatory or arbitrary enforcement. Fair notice means that an ordinary, reasonable person would know that an act was a crime. One example is in the case of Lanzetta v. New Jersey (1939). The Supreme Court invalidated a New Jersey law because the definition of gang was so vague that it would be necessary to guess at the meaning and would allow for discriminatory or arbitrary enforcement. Some vagueness in the law is inevitable because human language can never be perfectly clear or cover all possible contingencies.
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Indicate whether the statement is true or false.
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a. true b. false