There Ought To Be a Law. There Is. But Why?

James Lindgren, a law professor at Northwestern, asks an intriguing question when a New Yorker scribe quizzes him about David Letterman having allegedly been blackmailed by Robert Joel Halderman, a TV producer with knowledge of Letterman's intra-office trysts.

It's perfectly legal for Halderman to write, or threaten to write, a screenplay (or an e-mail to TMZ) exposing the fact that David Letterman had flings with "Late Show" employees. It's also legal for Halderman to ask Letterman for money as part of a business transaction. So why are the two things illegal when you put them together? In other words, Lindgren said, “Why is it illegal to threaten to do what you can do legally anyway?"

I'd never really thought about it, but I find that a convincing argument. Halderman is a douche — but why would he be a lawbreaker?

Think of it this way:

Saul Smilansky, the author of "Ten Moral Paradoxes," said that, in his opinion, what Halderman did wasn't heinous. "It's not terribly attractive, but it's still fairly standard capitalist practice," he said. "The Marxists used to say that capitalism is like blackmail — everyone tries to buy people off. Many social transactions look like blackmail when you examine them." He listed a few: "couples in divorce proceedings basically blackmailing each other to get a better deal," consumers telling a company "if they don't get a settlement they’ll go to the press" — in other words, any negotiations based on threats. What makes blackmail different? "There's no good reason to allow it," Smilansky said. "But our attitude towards blackmail, that it's so unusual, so terrible — it's just sanctimonious."

I frequently blog about unnecessary new laws — but unnecessary old ones can be plenty odious too.

The legislation I want most is a bill stipulating that for every new law that gets put on the books, lawmakers must abolish an existing one. The law against blackmail ought to be be a prime candidate for legislative overhaul, or, better yet, for scrapping altogether.

Am I missing something? Hit the comments.

Comments

And why are non-disclosure agreements hunkydory?

[david]

I thinks it's pretty simple. Blackmail is illegal because the parties in a position to be balckmailed are rich and powerful. They tend to get any laws needed to protect themselves passed or decreed, or whatever.

[www.nickschweitzer.net]

On its face, it seems to be a pretty convincing argument. Here is my thinking about why it is illegal, and perhaps, why there is a legitimate societal benefit for continuing to keep it illegal (even in a Libertarian world)... or at least modify it but keep it...

The thing that people are often times blackmailed regarding are crimes that have been broken (though it appears that Letterman broke no law). Blackmailing someone over a crime they have committed essentially creates a justice system outside of the one that we have created in our society, and is harmful.

I would suggest that the definition of blackmail should require that the thing being blackmailed over is a broken law.

[Mike]

Technically speaking isn't blackmailing somebody over a broken law already illegal?

Except in Ohio/Texas I don't believe it is required that you report a crime you know of, however agreeing to keep knowledge of a crime would seem to make you an accessory after the fact to the crime.

[Don]

1) All new laws should first be implemented on the people that, well, implement them for a period of 2 years and after that time if the implementers see fit the new law will be implemented on the society at large.

2) Further, all new politicians should spend their first 2 years in office on probation, reviewing older laws and recinding or sunseting them and then only after those 2 years have passed can they be considered for the role of implementing new laws in acordance with (1) above.

[smurfy]

"The legislation I want most is a bill stipulating that for every new law that gets put on the books, lawmakers must abolish an existing one"

I tried that with my wife and her purses and shoes. Impossible to enforce, she merely hides them.