Even Eliot Spitzer Has Individual Rights

When I first heard that Eliot Spitzer had been caught with a prostitute, I initially wanted to see prosecutors nail him to the proverbial wall. That was my emotional reaction. Allow me to explain: I obviously think that a consensual sex act between adults should not be illegal, so for anybody else busted for prostitution, I would be disgusted at the waste of scarce law enforcement resources that could be used to catch robbers, rapists, and murderers -who are real criminals. The only legitimate purpose of government is to protect individual rights to life, liberty, and property by restraining those who have violated rights. But, in the case of Mr. Spitzer, who made a profession out of prosecuting people under bad laws, like the laws prohibiting adult prostitution, I thought it only fitting that he should now get a little taste of what he had dished out for years as a politically ambitious prosecutor. Then, I regained full context, and remembered that even hypocritical people like Eliot Spitzer have individual rights, and that nothing can justify the violation of those individual rights, regardless of how emotionally satisfying that would be to me.