(Post by Heritage Senior Legal Research Fellow Brian Walsh) A new year, a new Congress, and already the march of overcriminalization is underway. Without engaging this Congress in debate or meaningful committee oversight, Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) is trying to ram through legislation–the Presidential Library Donation Reform Act of 2009 (H.R. 36)–that would make it a federal crime to fail to report a donation as small as $200 to a presidential library. The punishment? Up to five years (!) in federal prison. If this is the precedent that the 111th …
