Per-port penalty queue system for re-prioritization of network traffic sent to a processor

In an embodiment of the invention, a method and system for a per-port penalty queue system in a network device includes: selecting a state for a port in the network device; wherein the selected state comprises either a normal state or a restricted state; wherein the normal state permits a packet received at the port to be copied to a first queue; and wherein the restricted state causes the packet to be copied to a penalty queue which has lower priority than the first queue or causes the packet to not be copied to a queue. In another embodiment of the invention, a method and system permit using the port state for modifying a forwarding decision for a packet, so that the penalized packet will use a sub-optimal or less optimal routing path to the packet destination. In another embodiment of the invention, a method and system permit using the port state as a search key into an access control list (ACL) operation related to packet forwarding decisions or packet filtering decisions.