Powerful figures will cross constitutional lines when legal tools prove insufficient for their ambitions

Evidence

In the Legislature and the courts, then, the issue appeared in February 1925 all but settled: To realize a dream of unprecedented scope, Robert Moses, by use of the law, had armed himself with unprecedented powers—and then, finding that these powers were still inadequate, he had deliberately gone beyond them, beyond the law. “Entry and appropriation” was, even as defined in law, of questionable constitutionality in its negation of the individual’s rights when his property was coveted by the state. And Moses had gone beyond the definition to use the power of the state with even less restraint than the law allowed. But both courts and Legislature understood the situation; before both courts and Legislature, Moses stood stripped of all defenses and, it seemed in February 1925, both courts and Legislature would now step in and rectify the situation, the courts by affording redress to the individuals injured by his actions, the Legislature by insuring that he never again had the opportunity similarly to injure any other individual. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 840

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Narrow concepts of legal validity fail to prevent official abuse of power — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 502; Benevolent rulers’ precedents endanger liberty when successors claim them as rights — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 203; Legal structures both express and reinforce the distribution of power — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3798 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Narrow concepts of legal validity fail to prevent official abuse of power #corroborates (0.82) — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 502
• Mystified arbitrary power becomes immune to legal restraint #expands (0.80) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 628
• Benevolent rulers’ precedents endanger liberty when successors claim them as rights #expands (0.78) — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 203
• Legal structures both express and reinforce the distribution of power #qualifies (0.75) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3798
• Stability is sometimes unwisely chosen over progress in judicial lawmaking #corroborates (0.72) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 2557
• Power-holders must restrain themselves or power’s potential is squandered #qualifies (0.72) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 625