Wall Street Journal editorial shines light on overcriminalization, statutory vagueness

CS.RSS Subscribe to Blog Subscribe to All Updates related to Harvey's book Three Felonies a Day, a critical take on the Justice Department {#foreach $T.Years as year} <div class="year"> <div class="year_header"> <span>{$T.year.Year}</span> </div> <div class="year_months"> {#foreach $T.year.Months as month} <div class="month"> <a href="{$T.month.Url}" year="{$T.year.Year}" month="{$T.month.MonthN}">{$T.month.MonthName}</a> </div> {#/for} </div> </div> {#/for} Archive by Years ABA Journal Academic Freedom Adam Liptak Al Qaeda Albert Florence Announcement Anthony Kennedy anti-bullying legislation Anwar al-Awlaki Arizona House Bill 2549 Barry Bonds BG Blagojevich Boeri Boston Boston Globe Boston Herald Boston Phoenix Cato Institute Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Dan Rea David Boeri Deferred Prosecution Agreement Department of Justice Eliot Spitzer Excerpt Facebook FBI FCPA Federal Prosecutors First Amendment FOIA Forbes Forbes.com Free Speech Freedom of Speech Freedom Watch Goldman Sachs Harvard Book Store Heritage Foundation Honest Services Fraud Immunity In the News Injustice Department Interview Law Law and Technology Mail Fraud Mandatory Minimums Mens Rea Michael Milken Morissette NACDL NACDL Champion NECN New York Times NewsCorp Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals NYT Obstruction of Justice Options backdating Overcriminalization Peter Kadzis Police Political prosecution President Obama Prosecutorial discretion Prosecutorial Misconduct Radio Radio Boston RICO Robert Mueller Rupert Murdoch strip searches Supreme Court Tarek Mehanna The Atlantic The Criminal Docket Theodore Anzalone Thomas Finneran Tobacco UCLA Ukraine US v. Nosal Vague Statutes Video Wall Street War on Terror WBUR Wendy Kaminer WGBH White Collar Defense Wire Fraud WSJ Yulia Tymoshenko	Wall Street Journal editorial shines light on overcriminalization, statutory vagueness December 17, 2010 11:24:52 PM by Harvey Silverglate Yes Cancel Three Felonies a Day is front-and-center in an editorial in The Wall Street Journal today, "A Fewer Felonies Rule." Underscoring the need for more common sense in the federal criminal code, the editorial praises a bipartisan effort to require all bills to be reviewed by the Judiciary Committee, after a study found that some 450 new federal laws were created from 2000-2007, many of which lacked basic mens rea requirements. In his book "Three Felonies a Day," attorney Harvey Silverglate describes how the proliferation of criminal statutes has made every American an unwitting felon. That's one reason some prominent legal minds want House Republicans to make a simple rule change to subject new criminal laws to greater scrutiny. Read the full editorial here. [End of post.]