Abstract

This chapter explores collateral sanctions' awkward straddling of punitive and regulatory aims. In showing that these restrictions do not fit clearly into either category, it demonstrates the real dangers of that ambiguity. The harmful consequences of the massive, murky, ill-defined collateral-sanctions regime extend well beyond those directly affected, rendering citizens unable to judge the efficacy of such restrictions and undermining core commitments of the American political order. While many such restrictions seem quite unlikely to fulfill their purported objectives, the confusion over the character and purpose of collateral sanctions actually keeps us from knowing how to judge them in the first place.