The arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby has been in hot water with the Department of Justice since it was discovered that the company smuggled ancient artifacts from Iraq illegally. The company has settled with the DOJ and will pay a $3 million fine in addition to forfeiting all of the artifacts in question.
Could the DOJ find anything more important to go after these days? To say this whole Hobby Lobby debacle is a waste of time is an understatement. Assuming that individuals from the company voluntarily purchased these artifacts with no coercion or fraud, then there is zero reason for any government to get involved.
Apparently these artifacts were purposely mislabeled in order to receive less scrutiny from customs. This is where the “illegality” comes in. Take a look at this ridiculous quote from special agent Angel Melendez with the US Attorney’s Office, , “The protection of cultural heritage is a mission that Homeland Security Investigations and its partner US Customs and Border Protection take very seriously as we recognize that while some may put a price on these artifacts, the people of Iraq consider them priceless,”
So again, if the items were purchased on a voluntary basis with whomever the seller was, why should the state be involved? Why do these agencies care about the cultural heritage of foreign countries anyways? Individuals and companies should be able to freely trade goods on an international basis without state intervention.
Not only does Hobby Lobby lose the $3 million in fines, it also loses any potential capital gains on the artifacts they purchased. There are murderers, rapists, child kidnappers, etc who are out running free and this is the kind of thing the legal system devotes resources too? A complete and utter waste of time.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/05/us/hobby-lobby-ancient-artifacts-trnd/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_Lobby
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice