Originally Posted by Excerpt

In contrast to many critics of illegal immigration, Bush recognizes that the reasons why illegal immigrants violate the law matter to any moral evaluation of their actions. Those reasons might be irrelevant from a standpoint that condemns all illegality equally, regardless of the situation. But few Americans actually endorse any such position. To the contrary, most believe that many violations of the law are perfectly fine. For example, most people violate speed limit laws almost every time they drive to work. Most businesses violate at least some OSHA regulations. Most readers of this blog are probably federal felons, at least if they are anything like the average American, who commits about three federal felonies every day.

The point is not just that we violate laws all the time, but that in many circumstances we don’t consider it morally wrong to do so. If you violated the speed limit on your way to work today, you probably do not believe you did anything ethically questionable.