overenforce

present singular third person overenforces · participle present overenforcing · participle past overenforced · past overenforced

1. transitiveTo enforce excessively.

   I don’t know if it’s underenforcing or overenforcing the law. But, at least in the data, we see that Black officers are less likely to make a drug arrest than the others.

   2020 June 12, Kate Waldock and Luigi Zingales, “Should we defund the police?”, in Capitalisn't

   3 more examples

   The application of substantive canons typically overenforces the Constitution. But because overenforcement in the context of statutory interpretation clips congressional prerogatives much less than overenforcement in the context of judicial review, the application of substantive canons is not in direct conflict with the limitations upon judicial review.

   2010, Amy Coney Barrett, “SUBSTANTIVE CANONS AND FAITHFUL AGENCY”, in Boston University Law Review, volume 90, number 109, page 176

   By way of example, she has called the Miranda doctrine, the principle that all criminal suspects must be advised of their rights upon arrest, an example of “the court’s choice to overenforce a constitutional norm” that goes beyond constitutional meaning and claimed that this canon “inevitably excludes from evidence even some confessions freely given.”

   2020 September 26, “Amy Coney Barrett a perfect choice for half of America”, in CNN

   A series of cases limited the power of the state to express a religious point of view. But then state and local governments overcorrected. They overenforced the establishment clause and violated the free speech and free exercise clauses by taking aim at private religious expression.

   2024 August 25, David French, “The Christian Persecution Narrative Rings Hollow”, in The New York Times