Sustainable Public Ethics Requires Enforcement

Just as surely as a nation's forward-looking statements promote ethics and the rule of law in the public space, so must a nation's backward-looking history enforce them to sustain a civil democracy. Mature citizens and statesmen recognize the need for due process including judicial review and enforcement against actions at odds with constitutionally based ethical codes and laws, to avoid a legacy of special cases leading to unilaterally justified disregard for ethical codes and laws in the future.

Just as Torture is both ethically and legally wrong, even when justified by the protection of strongly held values, so is watering down the definition based on whether it 'works' or not, and lack of enforcement based on circumstantially perceived values-based short term benefits.