These are companies not people (even though we treat them that way when convenient), and they broke a regulation that is part of their expected operating procedures. Why are we dragging this into court and seating a jury because a company didn’t do the thing they were supposed to do. They should have no presumption of innocence, the inspection is the proof one way or the other. This just lets them further delay any consequences, and will be another thing calculated into their cost analysis of “are we going to follow the rules” or is it more cost effective (at least short term because that’s what shareholders care about) to just NOT ever follow the rules, delay any fines, rinse and repeat?
Because administrative penalties are a thing. Your right to a jury trial only applies to crimes, and not everything is a crime. SCOTUS effectively ruled that if something could be a crime, even if you’re not being charged with a crime, the government can’t issue a non-criminal fine for it instead.
If you refuse to vote for Democrats because they don’t perfectly align with your progressive ideals, this is what you get - potentially decades of work implementing environmental, anticorruption, and social justice rolled back by a court that has been stacked with extreme right wingers to legislate from the bench for unpopular outcomes.
There is one viable party that both implements more progressive policies and names judges that will uphold them - do not throw your vote away.
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