Legal Question in Constitutional Law in District of Columbia

Re: Can officials be charged?

Yes, you're right, "the inaction of the federal government in response to the hurricane seems on the surface, to fit the definition of criminal negligence". You're correct in that it may seem that way "on the surface" to a lay person such as yourself, but I can assure you that nothing so far that has come to light in terms of what any bureaucrat in FEMA or anywhere else in any agency of the U.S., state or local government, either has done or failed to do, would qualify as criminal negligence. Why this is so, I will not explain further in this particular forum.

And we need go no further here in exploring whether any given bureaucrat might have qualified soverign immunity or some other such protection from liability since a charge of criminal negligence would simply not lie under the circumstances which have occurred with Tempest Katrina.

Case closed.