Originally published at National Review by Michael Tanner | May 29, 2019
Both Trump and the Democrats have brought attention to the issue.
While we should expect the upcoming presidential campaign to focus on traditional issues of the economy, taxes, foreign policy, trade, and immigration — as well as the elephant in the room that is Donald Trump — criminal-justice reform has become a surprisingly hot topic on the campaign trail.
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Originally published at Manhattan-Institute by Rafael A. Mangual | January 1, 2019
The passage of the First Step Act — the criminal-justice and prison-reform bill championed by President Trump — was a rare bipartisan triumph in this age of deep polarization.
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Originally published at National Review by James R. Copland and Rafael A. Mangual| October 11, 2018
Across the country, well-meaning Americans face the threat of prosecution for violating state laws that criminalize unobjectionable behavior.
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Originally published at Manhattan-Institute by James R. Copland and Rafael A. Mangual | August 8, 2018
Building on previous MI studies, this paper lays out the contours of America’s state-level overcriminalization problem. Today, state statutory and regulatory codes overflow with criminal offenses. Most of these offenses involve conduct that is not intuitively wrong. Most could not be easily discoverable by individuals or small businesses that lack teams of specialized lawyers.
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Published at Manhattan-Institute by James R. Copland | April 11, 2017
Late last month the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a 74-page report on how the department oversees asset forfeitures– the practice in which law enforcement and government agencies seize property they believe was connected to a crime.
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Originally published at Cato Institute by Tim Lynch | February 16, 2017
People: Aaron Swartz, Dudley Hiibel, Bobby Unser, Eric Garner
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Originally published by Cato Institute by Walter Olson | February 16, 2017
Congress and state lawmakers (and where appropriate, the president and executive branch law enforcement officials) should review existing law with an eye toward rolling back overcriminalization and replacing criminal penalties with civil sanctions where feasible.
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Originally published at Manhattan Institute by James R. Copland and Rafael A. Mangual | 10/12/15
On Oct. 1, a bipartisan group of senators including Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), Dick Durbin(D-Ill.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), announced a plan to reduce mandatory criminal sentences under federal law for nonviolent offenders and help former prisoners reintegrate into society. Such an effort is overdue, but insufficient to fully remedy the overreach of federal criminal law. To do so, lawmakers must also bring attention to what we and other reformers have called “overcriminalization” in federal code. Continue Reading
Originally published at National Review by Jonathan Keim | 9/21/15
As criminal justice reform has built momentum in recent months, it has lost some of its focus on overcriminalization issues like mens rea reform and overbreadth. This afternoon Senator Orrin Hatch refocused the coalition on these issues, bringing attention to proposed legislation that would rein in the overly expansive federal criminal code by imposing a default mens rea on all federal crimes. Continue Reading
Originally published at The Heritage Foundation by John G. Malcolm | 9/1/2015
A number of criminal justice reform proposals have been introduced and are being actively discussed and debated on Capitol Hill these days. Most[1] (but not all[2]) of these proposals involve reforming criminal sentencing practices and prison reform. Notably absent, at least so far, have been any proposals to address mens rea (Latin for a “guilty mind”) reform. Continue Reading
Originally published at National Review by Jonathan Keim | June 3, 2015
On Monday the Supreme Court did something interesting in Elonis v. United States, a case about the interstate threat statute and its application to Facebook status messages. Although widely viewed as a case with great significance for the First Amendment’s application to social networking, the Court sidestepped the constitutional question and dove straight for the overcriminalization issue: default mens rea.
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Originally published at National Review by Timothy Head & Matt Kibbe| 5/21/15
When three missing fish can land someone in jail on felony charges, reform is needed. ‘There is no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime,” retired Louisiana State University law professor John Baker told the Wall Street Journal in July 2011. “That is not an exaggeration.” Continue Reading
Originally published at National Review by Lawrence Lewis | 12/1/15
Yes, says Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, an Obama political appointee in the Department of Justice, who last week took aim at the House Judiciary Committee’s bipartisan criminal justice reform efforts. She was specifically targeting the House mens rea reform bill, which would ensure that to be convicted of a federal crime, a defendant must have a minimal level of criminal intent. Here’s what Yates said, as quoted by NPR: Continue Reading
riginally published at Politico by Charles G. Koch & Mark Holden | January 7, 2015
As Americans, we like to believe the rule of law in our country is respected and fairly applied, and that only those who commit crimes of fraud or violence are punished and imprisoned. But the reality is often different. It is surprisingly easy for otherwise law-abiding citizens to run afoul of the overwhelming number of federal and state criminal laws. Continue Reading
Originally published at The National Review by Carrie Campbell Severino | 1/5/15
The Wall Street Journal has published an editorial about a proposed change to the rules of the House of Representatives allowing the House Judiciary Committee to review legislation creating new criminal offenses. According to the Journal Continue Reading
Originally published at The National Review by Eli Lehrer | 9/22/14
Brothers Stewart and Michael Parnell — the company owner and buyer at the center of the salmonella-tainted peanut scandal that killed nine people in 2008 and 2009 — will both face long prison sentences following their convictions on federal charges last week. But the specific way that the brothers will face justice ought to raise some questions for anyone concerned about laws that have granted too much arbitrary power to courts and prosecutors. Quite simply, the Parnells are being prosecuted and sentenced for technical wrongs when their actual crime was much worse. Continue Reading
Originally published at National Review by Evan Bernick | 1/13/14
It’s time for our lawmakers to end overcriminalization. In the wake of media reports that 40,000 new federal, state, and local laws will go into effect this year, there’s no better time for Americans to revisit the old maxim that “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” An unknown number of these new provisions are criminal laws that can deprive us of our liberty and brand us for life. No ordinary American can be expected to know every law, new and old, on the books, not even every criminal law. Continue Reading
Originally published at National Review by Paul Larkin Jr. | 5/7/12
Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) and Representative Paul C. Broun (R., Ga.) Striking a blow against overcriminalization You’ve been invited to participate on a new game show called Do You Know the Law? Two wrong answers eliminate you. “Why not?” you say to yourself. “I know as much law as the next person. What’s the worst that could happen: embarrassment?” The first panelist correctly answers the question, “Can you steal your neighbor’s car?” The second aces the query, “Can you lie on a loan application?” You, however, get the question, “Do you import spiny lobster from Honduras in a plastic bag or a cardboard box?” Continue Reading
Originally published at National Review by Edwin Meese III | 12/13/10
The incoming House majority has promised to change the way that business is done in Washington — to look out for the average American and for small business. It faces one of its first opportunities to do so this month, when the new members select the proposed rules that will govern the House. Continue Reading