  Principled consistency in the use of force does not mean, in this, nonhybrid conception, that government is bound punctiliously to apply all norms promulgated by authorities or to repeat past mistakes. The claim is rather that the morality of coercive interaction makes institutional practice relevant to what may or must be done now. Government must take its other action (legislation, cases, etc.) seriously and act now in a way that’s consistent in principle with that action, taken together.  Any past action that cannot be justified under the scheme that justifies the rest is action that is not after all relevant to what is to be done now, and is to be set aside as mistake. We must revise our understanding of principles on which we acted in the past, which may have led us to such mistakes.