As the frequency of prizefights increased, various states moved beyond general and sometimes vague statutes concerning assault and enacted laws that expressly forbade fistfights.
But recent developments offer some hope that at least one phenomenon that enables what has become, essentially, a corrupt system namely, vague statutes that can ensnare the innocent might be remedied.
The best way to prevent abuse is to reform this vague statute and eliminate the agency's discretion.
The US government has interpreted this vague statute in ways that are inconsistent with international human rights law, providing no exceptions or adequate defenses for whistleblowers who disclose matters of serious public import.
Just as prosecutors have used the CFAA -- sometimes successfully -- to cast a wide net and pursue cases of dubious merit, so too can employers try to use broad interpretations of this vague statute to target employees who use company networks or hardware to engage in extra-employment activities -- like union organizing, or even searching for a new job.
All too often, companies send legal threats and demands to try to silence work or findings that they find critical, often using misinterpreted, incorrect or vague legal statutes to get things pulled from the internet.
But this single successful prosecution, under a vague criminal statute, which stopped a few thousand dollars from reaching one side in a local conflict in the Horn of Africa, is the sole success story for the NSA bulk domestic surveillance program.
"After months and months of investigation, spending tens of thousands of your dollars, and claiming that Todd Courser misused taxpayer funds, Attorney General Schuette has charged him with a nonsensical claim of perjury and three counts of misconduct under a rarely used and vague 'catchall' statute".
Even though we believe that the current city administration would use the law rationally, once such a vaguely worded statute is passed, it opens the door for abuse.
The vague "honest services" statutes, a favorite of prosecutors, were struck down.
Shortly before his arrest in September last year, he had written a column criticising the government for jailing several of his colleagues, as well as two Swedish journalists, under vague anti-terror statutes passed in 2009.
