American politics has a myriad of problems. To my knowledge, however, we don’t have anything as ridiculous as what just happened in Mexico. There, a federal fugitive named Julio César Godoy snuck into the national legislature to claim the congressional seat he won in 2009. Godoy is accused of laundering millions of dollars for a drug cartel, but as soon as he was sworn in, he was immediately immune from prosecution.

It appears efforts are already underway to strip Mr. Godoy of his immunity, but why on earth does such a perk exist at all?