In their opening statements today in the confirmation hearings of nominee Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court, liberal Senators have taken to arguing that a Justice’s job is not to “call balls and strikes.” Most conservatives rightly believe the law should govern, not judges, and that Supreme Court Justices should interpret the law as it is written. Conservatives have therefore promoted the “balls and strikes” analogy ever since then-Judge John Roberts used it during his confirmation process before becoming Chief Justice. Roberts said that, if confirmed, “I will remember that …
Exposing the extent to which criminal law has expanded, the Supreme Court today narrowed the scope of the federal “honest services” fraud statute and called into question the validity of Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling’s conviction. Justice Sonia Sotomayor and two other “liberal” justices would have gone even further than the majority and granted Skilling a new trial. All nine justices agreed, however, that the government’s “honest services” theory overreached. Using astoundingly vague, overbroad language, the “honest services” statute makes it a federal crime, punishable by up to 20 years in …
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday handed a defeat to activists and other litigants whose extreme views motivate them to try to eliminate from public life almost every symbol and expression of religion. By a slim 5-4 margin, the Court in Salazar v. Buono reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and allowed an 8-foot cross in the Mojave Desert to continue to stand – at least for now. The cross is part of a national memorial for the over 300,000 American soldiers who died in World War …
If you did not know that you were supposed to affix a federally mandated sticker to your otherwise lawful UPS package, should you be arrested face down on the pavement by FBI agents training automatic weapons at you? Our hunch is that most reasonable Americans would respond with an emphatic ‘No!’ Today we are launching a series of posts based on case studies adapted from our new book, One Nation Under Arrest: How Crazy Laws, Rogue Prosecutors, and Activist Judges Threaten Your Liberty. The book includes stories of average Americans …
The Associated Press reported on Tuesdayon a letter the Michigan Department of Human Services sent to suburban mom Lisa Snyder, warning her to stop watching her neighbors’ children while they waited in the mornings for the school bus. Apparently Snyder was kind enough to do this as a favor for a few of her friends who are working moms. Initial reports do not indicate whether the warning letter is backed by possible criminal penalties. What is certain, however, is that this is yet another example of overbroad laws that bureaucrats …
In today’s Politico, attorneys Peter Zeidenberg and William Minor point out that the Public Corruption Prosecution Improvements Act of 2009, which recently passed out of Sen. Patrick Leahy’s Senate Judiciary Committee, authorizes $100 million for new federal prosecutors and agents to root out “public corruption” using the federal “honest services” statute and other overly broad federal statutes. Under this amorphous, poorly worded statute, anyone can be subjected to 20 years in prison for allegedly depriving anyone else of “the intangible right of honest services.” What this right encompasses – as …
If you’re a member of Congress, it’s tough to vote or even argue against any bill that has harsher criminal offenses or penalties. No legislator wants to give his reelection opponent the opportunity to label him as being “soft on crime.” Two bills scheduled to be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee today – the Public Corruption Prosecution Improvements Act and the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act (FERA) – have titles that make them sound salutary and even necessary. Such misleading labeling makes it even more difficult for committee members …
