2 thoughts on “Aaron’s Law”

  1. I agree with your general premise that laws named after someone are a bad idea. Would this be the first such-named law that tries to control government power?

  2. I also think that laws named after photogenic victims ought to be inherently suspect. And, Aaron Swartz? First off, he was probably in fact guilty, and that’s going to be off-putting to a lot of people any serious reform effort will need on its side. More importantly, he is dead not so much because he was unfairly prosecuted, but because he was severely depressed at the outset. There are people – lots of people – in this country with severe untreated depression, prone to commit suicide in the face of what ought to be endurable or even trivial hardships. And there are far too many abusive prosecutors. These are serious problems in urgent need of solutions.

    But they are largely separate problems, and confusing them will not do much to help either the criminal justice system or the mentally ill.

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