Vigilantism and the Lawful Alignment in OotS

[Reddish Mage]

Here's a thing. What if (as I believe it was in 2E D&D) detect evil only registered high level Priests of evil deities,inherently evil creatures, and people who have already undertaken very evil acts? Would that be acceptable criteria for immediate action?

I tend to think the way the alignment system works even in 3E plain ordinary people with an evil alignment have always, or almost always, committed very bad acts or they wouldn't have gotten the way they did. You don't get to be "evil" by everyday acts of petty nastiness, you need to be really willing to do some serious oppression to get that way.