Attorney General Sessions has told us repeatedly that federal laws are to be enforced no matter what. And if you don’t like it, wait for congress to repeal, or the federal courts to overturn the law in question.
But the principle author of the Declaration of Independence disagreed.
In response to the Sedition Act of 1798, President Jefferson insisted that it was his DUTY to NOT enforce the act passed by congress.
He explained his actions in an 1804 letter to Abigail Adams:
“I discharged every person under punishment or prosecution under the Sedition law, because I considered & now consider that law to be a nullity as absolute and as palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image; and that it was as much my duty to arrest it’s execution in every stage, as it would have been to have rescued from the fiery furnace those who should have been cast into it for refusing to worship their image.”
Thomas Jefferson vs Jefferson Sessions? That’s a no-brainer.
