Reasonable people may differ on the wisdom of President Donald Trump's pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Supporters of the pardon may see Arpaio's case as an example of a deplorable trend: the criminalization of policy differences. The Arizona lawman got caught in a fight over immigration policy. He was faulted for trying to enforce the immigration rules that Congress failed to rewrite but the Obama administration didn't seem terribly keen on enforcing. If his office did disobey court orders along the way, he nonetheless lacked the intent necessary to escalate the matter to criminal contempt of court from a lesser civil contempt charge.
The columnist came across a vendor selling Confederate battle flags at a booth at a county fair in New Hampshire and was highly offended, to the point that when the people running the fair refused to stop it she got Black Lives Matter on the case.
