Word: draconian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...discretion, can result in grievous injustices in sentencing, and shift the prison system to focus on punishment rather than rehabilitation. That’s not to say that mandatory minimum sentences are all bad—they have many benefits—but the rules as written are overly draconian and in need of reform. Mandatory minimum sentences eliminate a judge’s ability to fit the punishment to the crime. This institutionalizes ignoring many nuances and mitigating circumstances that may reduce the punishment for crimes. Judges have frequently criticized these laws, which they say impair their ability...
...muscle. With more U.S. troops being sent to Baghdad, fighters from Sadr's Mahdi Army began appearing in force in Diwaniyah, a predominantly Shi'ite area of about 400,000 people sitting amid some of Iraq's most fertile farmlands. Violence soon followed. Women accused of violating the draconian brand of Islamic law espoused by al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia began turning up dead in Diwaniyah. Residents working with coalition forces at a Polish army base in the area became targets too, as did local journalists, wealthy residents and some members of the police, which are thought...
Given that the First Amendment protects citizens’ right “to petition the government for redress of grievances,” legislators have only limited constitutional leeway to regulate political expression. But without draconian speech restrictions, reformers are left with only marginal changes that do not affect the underlying incentives to donate, and, as a result, campaign finance reforms just shift money around. So, when “soft” money was banned by the 2002 McCain-Feingold reform, candidates raised more “hard” money, and 527s (such as the Swift Boat...
...effective way of mobilizing gun supporters to fight for Second Amendment rights. Froman also took time to criticize the D.C. Gun Ban—a longstanding ban on handguns in the nation’s capital—calling it one of the “most draconian laws” in the country. “If anything in the world can possibly violate the Second Amendment, then surely the D.C. Gun Ban can,” she said. During the question-and-answer session, Froman said that private arms could serve as a safety net if the government...
...Catholic Latin America (Cuba, Guyana and Barbados). In fact, abortion prohibitions in some countries there have gotten stricter - even in Nicaragua, where the former Marxist revolutionary Daniel Ortega recently became President again, but where the staunchly pro-life Catholic Church last fall influenced passage of the hemisphere's most draconian ban on abortion...