Unwritten Law

BASE Jumping, Bureaucracy, and the Law


Listen Later

In this episode, Casey Norman joins Mark Chenoweth and John Vecchione to unpack BASE Access, et al. v. National Park Service, a remarkable case about whether a federal agency can criminalize BASE jumping in national parks without any clear authorization from Congress. For nearly 50 years, the National Park Service has treated BASE jumping as a crime—even though the regulation they rely on was written in the 1950s to prevent cargo drops, not recreational jumping.

Casey explains the nondelegation challenge, the vagueness problem, the strange double standard with hang gliding, and why a federal judge in Houston is pressing the government to rethink its outdated criminal rules. If you care about the Constitution, criminal law, or just enjoy wild outdoor sports, this episode has something for you.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Unwritten LawBy New Civil Liberties Alliance