_Government's Self-Insulation_

"Ignorantia juris non excusat" is Latin for "Ignorance of the law does not excuse."

That should also apply to government officials—especially when they make or enforce laws that are themselves Unconstitutional, or when judges misinterpret the Constitution.

FTA: Rationally, however, what of the assumptions implicit in ['ignorance is no excuse' principle]? If one thinks about this principle from the perspective of the citizen, it is certainly not as straight forward as the government believes it is. If ignorance is not an excuse, then it logically follows that citizens must know all laws. Likewise, at the federal level, Ignorantia juris non excusat applies also to federal administrative rules. An appropriate question is how many laws and administrative rules are there that all citizens have to have memorized under this principle. Currently, the federal register contains slightly more than 30,000 statutes. So the law requires each and every citizen to memorize or, at least, be familiar with 30,000 laws and administrative rules in the federal register. It is also the case that the federal government adds between 200-600 statutes per year. A moving target indeed.

https://regovernance.substack.com/p/governments-self-insulation