'Spirit of the law' usually means you've lost

Whenever someone says someone else should follow "the spirit of the law," it's code for: "I don't have a legal way to force you to do what I want you to do, but you should do it anyway."

Take it from me. I'm a veteran user of that line from myriad disputes with public officials over open records and open meetings. If you have a reasonable case and can lay enough of a guilt trip on the officials involved, sometimes it even works -- but not very often.

I doubt that attorney Eric Deters will get much traction with that position as he represents Independence residents in the fight over where a new Kenton County Jail should be located. Deters, as quoted in our story in today's Kentucky Enquirer, said Kenton County Judge Executive Ralph Drees should "follow the spirit of the law" because the controversial site of the new jail is 1,336 feet from Summit View middle and elementary schools. State law sets a 1,000-foot limit on how close sex offenders can live to a school.

Regardless of how you feel about the jail site, this seems like a grasping-at-straws ploy to touch the emotion engendered any time you say "sex offender."

First of all, Kenton County Attorney Garry Edmondson said Deters has measured to the property line, and the jail itself would be more than 4,000 feet from the campus.

Secondly, Edmondson doubts that prisoners would be considered residents under state law. When was the last time you heard anyone being described as "residing in the county jail"? It's not like they can come and go as they please, and they're not registered sex offenders until they leave incarceration.

Using stronger, more rational arguments would be in the spirit of healthy debate.