Abner Schoenwetter had been in the commercial seafood business since 1986. Over the years, Schoenwetter built a successful company distributing seafood across the country, including lobster tails imported from overseas. As far as Schoenwetter knew, all of his business transactions were perfectly legal and he had no reason to believe …
Chapter 5 of One Nation Under Arrest is titled “Criminalizing Kids.” This chapter includes stories demonstrating that it is not just adults who face the dangers of overcriminalization. The prevailing mindset among most legislators and government policy makers is that criminal law and criminal punishment are generally the best tools …
(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 …
Jury selection begins today in the trial of Lori Drew, indicted by federal prosecutors for using false information to create a MySpace account. Yes, that’s right: she’s not charged (pdf) with “cyber-bullying” or harassment or even causing the death of Megan Meier, the teen who committed suicide after she received …
Forget the over-hyped bogeymen net neutrality and the ever-more-omniscient Googleplex. The real threat to Internet freedom comes from plain old criminal law. In three weeks time, Missouri housewife Lori Drew will face trial for entering false personal details when she signed up for a MySpace account. Her indictment alone, whether …
