Conflicting statutory provisions can criminalize the very act the law says may be withheld

Evidence

All that the Department says may be true. But it does not enable us to make sense out of the statute. Nowhere does the Act say that a factory manager must allow entry and inspection at a reasonable hour. Section 704 makes entry and inspection conditioned on “making request and obtaining permission.” It is that entry and inspection which I 301(f) backs with a sanction. It would seem therefore on the face of the statute that the Act prohibits the refusal to permit inspection only if permission has been previously granted. Under that view the Act makes illegal the revocation of permission once given, not the failure to give permission. But that view would breed a host of problems. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 404

Categorization

• DEFINE: Exemplifies the void-for-vagueness doctrine via a concrete statutory mess rather than abstract principle.
• XREF: Connects to LGST 1110 material on fair-notice and rule-of-law requirements in criminal statutes; also echoes the earlier extraction about judges feeling unable to overturn entrenched rules. — connects to: Equal operation of law prevents officials escaping political backlash through selective enforcement. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 202; Amendment-by-implication doctrine can ratify an agency’s contested interpretation when Congress touches a statute — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 509; Overbroad statutes are tainted when prohibiting both protected and criminal conduct — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 844

Broader Connections

• Overbroad statutes are tainted when prohibiting both protected and criminal conduct #qualifies (0.80) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 844