United States v. $35,651.11

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse" is terrible reasoning with such a large, complex legal code poorly understood by most.

Why would a small business owner expect that depositing money into the bank every few days before it exceeded his on-premises insurance be a problem?

"Is he honestly surprised that penalties can be imposed without civil or criminal process, that a person can be found guilty by administrative fiat and then must prove themselves innocent"?

Maybe not in this day and age but he can still be angry. We can still be angry regardless of whether he's guilty or innocent in fact because due process is important.

Just consider that a person speeding, at least with yesterday's law, will be ticketed by a cop and then can either fight the fine or pay it with some lead time. The fact that most people are guilty in X instance is absolutely zero, zero reason to toss out the need for the state for first prove its case before it can act unilaterally.