Common criminal

THE federal government got its man this week. John Duarte will finally be held accountable for his dastardly deed. Mr. Duarte didn’t make the FBI’S Most Wanted list, but the government devoted much time and effort to bringing him to justice. His crime: Tilling his wheat field.

Mr. Duarte is a farmer near Modesto in California. In 2012, government agents accused him of plowing too deeply into his property and injuring wetlands. Under federal law, the Corps of Engineers has jurisdiction over navigable rivers, streams and waterways. But Obama administration bureaucrats, undermining property rights in the name of environmentalism, distorted the definitions of “navigable rivers” and “waterways” to assert federal authority over virtually every puddle or pond.

Mr. Duarte, with the help of the Pacific Legal Foundation, decided to fight. But he became a criminal in 2016 when a judge ruled he had violated the Clean Water Act by “deep ripping” his own field without a federal permit.

On Tuesday, Mr. Duarte agreed to a settlement rather than risk being bankrupted by a bigger penalty if he continued to resist. Under the deal, he will pay $1.1 million in fines and “compensatory mitigation” — which is government-speak for the creation of a slush fund that regulators will spend on wetlands restoration. The punishment is less than the $2.8 million sought by federal prosecutors.

Mr. Duarte now becomes a poster child for the administrative state run amok. No matter. The bureaucrats got their trophy. A real John Dillinger.

The views expressed above are those of the Las Vegas Review-journal. All other opinions expressed on the Opinion and Commentary pages are those of the individual artist or author indicated.