The Justice Department’s decision to drop its case against David Hearn for vandalizing the Reflecting Pool rejects the weaponization of federal power for symbolic offenses. Democrats’ outrage reveals their expectation that the DOJ should serve as a political enforcement arm, pursuing minor property damage when it suits their narrative while ignoring far graver threats. This reversal begins to correct the habit of turning every act of protest into a federal spectacle. Federal authority exists to secure rights and punish genuine crimes against the United States, not to police every defacement of public property under expansive interpretations of vandalism statutes. Original constitutional design left most ordinary offenses to states and localities, preserving individual liberty from endless national scrutiny. Treating a reflecting pool as a federal shrine demanding Department of Justice intervention stretches limited government beyond recognition. Restoring prosecutorial restraint is how the rule of law regains credibility.