Via Radley comes the following bit of “reassurance” from the office of Sen. Joseph Biden, who proves that Republicans haven’t monopolized the art of pissing on the Constitution after all:

A friend of mine who works for an advocacy group here in D.C. said he spoke with a staffer in Biden’s office about the RAVE Act. The staffer told him that he had nothing to fear, that the RAVE Act puts all the discretion about which clubs to bust in the hands of local law enforcement. Local officials, Biden’s staffer said, aren’t going to shut down concert venues or dance clubs that are vital to their communities.

Great. This is, of course, the problem with “discretion” in law: you never know when or whether the knock on the door’s going to come, because it no longer depends on your conformity with some impartial rule, but on your popularity with the local commisars. Because the act, which holds event organizers and venue owners responsible for any drug use taking place at their shindigs, is basically impossible to comply with, it becomes a standing license to shut down politically disfavored events. The club down the street where kids take some E before dancing? The celebrity whose party guests are invariably coked to the gills? Well, they’ve paid their property taxes. The anti-war concert/rally where somebody in a crowd of thousands is almost certain to spark up a doobie? Break out the riot gear, boys, it’s a Threat to the Youth of America.