The defence forces may fade away, and the flowers may die, but the statutes we have in our constitution do neither. The statutes live for an indefinite period in the United States. The statutes often become obsolete or in some cases fall into desuetude. These statutes even though fall into desuetude and rarely enforced, they always retain their effect and force until they are either held unconstitutional by the courts or repealed by the legislature. There are more than 4000 laws that are obsolete. Many of these laws are absurd and irrelevant. Among these archaic and absurd laws that need to be repealed or held unconstitutional is The Logan Act. Congress has a duty to repeal this act. Thus, this paper highlights why The Logan Act ought to be repealed or held unconstitutional by the courts.

Congress has a duty to repeal the Logan Act. Globalized and modern communications have thus far been destroyed by the remnant rationale of the Logan Act. The act today will hypothetically criminalize constitutionally protected speech made by US citizens. Mid last year, some news broke out that John Kerry had a meeting with some foreign sources that included the Iranian ambassador with an agenda of promoting foreign policy at the expense of our current administration. So many folks can criticize John Kerry for his move but not least on the agenda of taking part in siding with our nation’s enemies. One squabble against John’s pursuit of his foreign policy is at odds with our Commander in Chief is that his actions are regarded as a federal crime in line with the Logan Act. His actions may be regarded as a federal crime,but in reality, is a reminder why the Congress or our courts should repeal this absurd and irrelevant act.

The above act is an example of a doleful American culture and tradition. This act was named after a particular individual. This particular individual was a Pennsylvania legislature known as George Logan. It is in between his five years of tenure when The United States and France embroiled themselves in a Quasi-War. As the undeclared naval war prolonged, George sympathized with France and offered to travel to the French country to open some separate negotiations. Through George’s actions of separate talks, the Federalists were outraged. While George was continuing with negotiations in the France territory, the Federalists in the Congress passed the Logan Act which bears his name.  The Logan Act passed by the Federalists stated that,

“Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.”

Any law that sits in the constitution for more than two centuries without being in practice notwithstanding,  being invoked overtly in high profile political hullabaloos does not hold water in the rule of law. Since the act was passed, it has only indicted two individuals who include Daniel Webster in the year 1982 and Kentucky farmer under the Administration of Jefferson. The enforcement of the Logan Act is far too subjective, and if anyone can be charged under this act in this current era would possess a strong potentially legal defenceand a fairness argument. He or she will argue that the statute only applies selectively, purposely on political matters.

It is ripe to put to an end to this charade of an act that has been so dormant since it was passed in the year 1799. This act is an example of a doleful American culture, tradition and should be repealed or held unconstitutional by our courts. Inspite of this, for example, John Kerry putting himself in the same shoes like that of Flynn, worse still is that since Flynn apparently acted on behalf of a duly elected presidential Administration, the statute has never been applied or brought any good tidings to our nation for the last two centuries. As the citizens, we ought to give cover to our politicians in all the parties to join hands together and repeal the Logan Act. Equally, we should advocate our relevant courts to provide a ruling that the act should be deemed unconstitutional. If this act would be used against any nationally prominent individual in a significant disagreement, the act will lead to an increasing combustible climate politically and after that bringing a considerable harm to our country unity.

Works Cited

McLaughlin, Patrick A. “The Searching for and Cutting Regulations That Are Unnecessarily Burdensome Act of 2014.” Testimony before the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial, and Antitrust Law, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Arlington, VA (2014).

Simpson III, Curtis C. “The Logan Act of 1799: May It Rest in Peace.” Cal. W. Int’l LJ 10 (1980): 365.

Vagts, Detlev F. “The Logan Act: Paper Tiger or Sleeping Giant?.” American Journal of International Law 60.2 (1966): 268-302.

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