Originally published at the Cato Institute Nov 2, 2020 by Ilya Shapiro and William Yeatman To an unfortunate extent, the modern administrative state has expanded into criminal law enforcement. Many federal regulatory statutes—including those governing antitrust, securities, and the environment—authorize agencies to pursue both civil and criminal penalties. Thus, more than 300,000 federal regulations have… Continue Reading
Originally published at Cato.org
Joseph Robertson dug ditches to collect water from a rivulet that ran through his private property. In the process some dirt got into the rivulet, which emptied into a local stream, which emptied into a state river, which entered a river that crossed state lines. The Army Corps of Engineers charged Robertson under the Clean Water Act (CWA) with criminal sanctions for failing to get a permit for the “dumping” of “dredge and fill” into interstate waters. Continue Reading
Originally Published at National Review by Shannen W. Coffin December 12 2011
The Wall Street Journal has a powerful illustration today (subscription required) of the problem of overcriminalization of federal law and the related problem of strict liability crimes. It tells the story of Lawrence Lewis, a maintenance engineer at a military retirement home in D.C., who pled guilty to misdemeanor violations of the Clean Water Act and its implementing regulations — all for discharging a backed-up sewer line into a city storm drain to prevent flooding in an area on the property where, according to the story, the sickest residents lived. Continue Reading