State Dinner crashers
Not a feature film starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. A reality
Last week the White House hosted its first state dinner and the biggest story wasn’t the pomp or the circumstance. It was the DC socialites who crashed the party.
In addition to the other twists and turns of the story, the event has been especially sobering for the Secret Service, which failed to flag them as uninvited. The embarrassment only grew when it was learned that they actually met the president.
Although the couple proudly posted pictures of their expedition, some have speculated that the event will haunt them as a historic faux pas.
Ethically speaking, who was more in the wrong? The crashers or the Secret Service?
Showing up to an invitation-only event without one is certainly a classic faux pas. But is violating social protocol unethical? That’s harder to determine. A good case can be made that sometimes morality asks us to violate social protocol (say, refusing to give up one’s seat on a bus despite a racially structured social code).
What makes this case notably different is not merely that the crashers arrived uninvited at just any party, but a state dinner. There are strict regulations that govern contact with the president and entry into presidential quarters. Presumably, these rules are designed for the president’s protection, an objective are all bound to respect and uphold. Violating them was a definite no-no.
The Secret Service on the other hand suffered a serious breach of duty. While the details of how the couple made it into the dinner — and up to the president — are still emerging, the Secret Service clearly failed to uphold its own protocols. Presumably both Secret Service procedures and individual agent conduct are held to the highest level of scrutiny. Any violation or lapse is by implication ethically severe.
No one was a winner in this situation, but where the couple was reckless, the Secret Service failed.
-Sam
Related posts:
- Wild on: state secrets
- Obama administration and state secrets
- How much is too much for a presidential night on the town?
- Abusing state power
- Personal responsibility and the nanny state
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