You Are a Federal Criminal

Alex KozinskiIt is impossible to know how many Americans are federal criminals. There are thousands of federal crimes and hundreds of thousands of federal regulations that can be criminally enforced. Some criminals are murderers, rapists, gangsters, and other profoundly immoral people. These fit easily into [American legal scholar Henry M] Hart’s understanding that criminals are people who have committed acts deserving of community’s serious moral condemnation and punishment. However, these antisocial individuals are a minuscule fraction of America’s criminal class. In fact, most Americans are criminals and don’t know it, or suspect they are but believe they’ll never get prosecuted.

Alex Kozinski and Misha Tseytlin
“You’re (Probably) a Federal Criminal” in In the Name of Justice

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