lawful but awful

alternative awful but lawful

1. governmentMorally questionable but legally allowed.

   “Lawful but awful happens when you have some kind of situation where the officer feared for their life,” he [Chuck Wexler] said.

   2021 April 7, Kathleen Foody, quoting Chuck Wexler, “EXPLAINER: Questioning blurs meaning of ‘lawful but awful’”, in Toronto Star, sourced from AP, archived from the original on 07 Feb 2026

   1 more example

   For example, consider the “lawful but awful” shootings plaguing black communities across the country. If public safety requires a police force that is given carte blanche to brutalize its citizens, the government should have to state so on the record and defend its reasoning.

   2020 June 23, Tahir Duckett, “The Hidden Constitutional Costs of the Carceral System”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 23 Jun 2020