The FDA’s Continuing Assault on the Principles of Justice

by | May 21, 2019

The FDA’s Continuing Assault on the Principles of Justice

by | May 21, 2019

Eddie Gray, the owner of the online pipe-smokers’ boutique The Pipe Nook, reports in his latest YouTube video that the FDA has accused him of selling to a minor but refuses to provide the evidence. This is nothing less than a direct assault on a basic principle of Anglo-American justice: innocence until guilt is proved, which means that the government — exclusively — has the burden of proof and the accused has no burden whatever to provide evidence of his innocence. One obvious aspect of this principle is that the state has an obligation to present the evidence to the accused, who may then rebut it. This is how things should work because one cannot prove a negative, namely, that one is not guilty, especially when one is given no details about the alleged offense.

When will those in Washington who love to rail against regulation finally pull the plug on the FDA, which tramples individual rights wherever it treads?

See my other FDA posts herehere, here, and here.

Sheldon Richman

Sheldon Richman

Sheldon Richman is the executive editor of The Libertarian Institute and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He is the former senior editor at the Cato Institute and Institute for Humane Studies; former editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education; and former vice president at the Future of Freedom Foundation. His latest books are Coming to Palestine and What Social Animals Owe to Each Other.

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