The Federal Government's 175,000 Pages of Regulations Turn the Rule of Law Into a Cruel Joke
Sunseri unwittingly violated one of the myriad federal regulations that carry criminal penalties—a body of law so vast and obscure that no one knows exactly how many offenses it includes. An executive order that President Donald Trump issued last week aims to ameliorate the injustices caused by the proliferation of such agency-defined crimes, which turn the rule of law into a cruel joke.
The Code of Federal Regulations "contains over 48,000 sections, stretching over 175,000 pages—far more than any citizen can possibly read, let alone fully understand," Trump's order notes. "Worse, many [regulations] carry potential criminal penalties for violations."
How many? As Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and co-author Janie Nitze note in their 2024 book on "the human toll of too much law," even experts cannot say for sure, although "estimates suggest that at least 300,000 federal agency regulations carry criminal sanctions today."
At the federal level, in other words, regulatory crimes outnumber statutory crimes—another uncertain tally—by a factor of roughly 60 to 1. Since the latter category has exploded during the last century, that is no small feat, but it is what you might expect when unaccountable bureaucrats are free to invent crimes.
"Many of these regulatory crimes are 'strict liability' offenses, meaning that citizens need not have a guilty mental state to be convicted of a crime," Trump notes. "This status quo is absurd and unjust. It allows the executive branch to write the law, in addition to executing it."
Trump said prosecutors generally should eschew criminal charges for regulatory violations based on strict liability and focus on cases where the evidence suggests the defendant knowingly broke the rules. Trump also instructed federal agencies to "explicitly describe" conduct subject to criminal punishment under new regulations and prepare lists of regulatory violations that already can be treated as crimes.
Given the enormous volume and range of federal regulations, that last requirement is a tall order. But if the agencies that issue those regulations cannot specify all of the violations that can trigger criminal penalties, what hope does the average American have?
Those penalties may not be readily apparent, because "you need to consult at least two provisions of law to identify regulatory crimes," GianCarlo Canaparo, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, explained in Senate testimony this month. A regulation that says "Swiss cheese must have holes throughout the cheese," for example, says nothing about criminal prosecution, which is authorized by a separate provision of the U.S. Code.
Canaparo noted other examples gathered by Mike Chase, author of the comical yet accurate book How to Become a Federal Criminal. It is a federal crime, for instance, "to sell a tufted mattress unless you have burned 9 cigarettes on the tufted part of it," "to submit a design to the Federal Duck Stamp contest if your design does not primarily feature 'eligible waterfowl,'" and "to sell a small ball across state lines unless it is marked with a warning that says, 'this toy is a small ball.'"
Getting a handle on this bewildering situation will require more than prosecutorial restraint, a matter of discretion that is subject to change at any time. Canaparo argues that Congress should eliminate "excess federal crimes," add mens rea ("guilty mind") requirements to provisions that lack them, and recognize a defense for people who did not realize their conduct was unlawful. As he notes, rampant overcriminalization makes a mockery of the old adage that "ignorance of the law is no excuse."
© Copyright Creators Syndicate Inc.
The post The Federal Government's 175,000 Pages of Regulations Turn the Rule of Law Into a Cruel Joke appeared first on Reason.com.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
22 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Donald Trump Says His Supreme Court Win Helps Obama—'He Owes Me Big'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. President Donald Trump says former President Barack Obama "owes" him "big" after a Supreme Court ruling in 2024 on presidential immunity. Newsweek reached out to the office of Barack and Michelle Obama via online form Friday for comment. Why It Matters The president and former president have been in a public feud this week after Trump accused Obama and his team of committing "treason," alleging the former president manufactured intelligence regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Obama's office responded to the accusation in a rare statement, saying in part, "Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes," Obama's spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said. "These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio." The Supreme Court's ruling last year on presidential immunity has broadened the limits of legal protection for presidents, both sitting and former, in relation to their official acts. The decision has had immediate effects on ongoing legal cases involving Trump and has sparked debate about its far-reaching implications. What To Know When asked by a reporter if the Supreme Court ruling would benefit Obama and cover what Trump is accusing him of, the president responded, "It probably helps him a lot. Probably helps him a lot, the immunity ruling, but it doesn't help the people around him at all." The president added, "But it probably helps him a lot ... he's done criminal acts, no question about it. But he has immunity, and it probably helps him a lot." Trump then concluded by saying, "He owes me big, Obama owes me big." On July 1, 2024, the High Court ruled 6-3 that presidents enjoy absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for their "core" constitutional acts while in office. The ruling stemmed from criminal charges against Trump related to his actions during and following the 2020 presidential election. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that this immunity is essential for the executive branch's independence, and even former presidents are entitled to a presumption of immunity for official acts. President Donald Trump can be seen calling on a reporter during a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Oval Office at the White House on July 22 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by... President Donald Trump can be seen calling on a reporter during a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Oval Office at the White House on July 22 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by) More What People Are Saying Roberts, in the ruling: "It is these enduring principles that guide our decision in this case. The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official. The President is not above the law. But Congress may not criminalize the President's conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the Executive Branch under the Constitution." Roberts continued: "And the system of separated powers designed by the Framers has always demanded an energetic, independent Executive. The President therefore may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. That immunity applies equally to all occupants of the Oval Office, regardless of politics, policy, or party." What Happens Next For future presidents of both parties, the immunity standard is likely to serve as binding precedent, making it harder to hold a president criminally liable for actions deemed official. Although Trump signaled that the ruling protects Obama, there is no current investigation that has been announced by the Department of Justice into Obama or his administration over actions during the 2016 election.
New York Post
23 minutes ago
- New York Post
The ‘woke right' free-trade critics are only fooling themselves
Capitalism gets a lot of hate. I expect it from the left. They blame free markets for racism, 'horrifying inequality' and even, according to economist Joseph Stiglitz, 'accelerating climate change.' People on the right generally defend capitalism, but today, a growing number agree with the left. Advertisement Author James Lindsay says, 'They make the exact same arguments that we've heard for decades: 'capitalism has made everything about the dollar. Everything's about GDP . . . you lose everything that really matters, like kinship and nation and identity.' ' Tucker Carlson, who Lindsay calls 'woke right,' praises Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren's economic programs, saying they 'make obvious sense.' 'Astonishing!' says Lindsay. Advertisement 'Warren put forth something called the 'Accountable Capitalism Act,' which was going to restrain the way that corporations are able to behave under the brand name of 'accountability'.' Even Vice President JD Vance attacks free trade. 'While the government shouldn't be controlling the American economy,' Vance said, 'we should . . . put a little bit of a thumb on the scale . . . protect nascent industries from foreign competition.' That is 'just another way of saying, 'your company got too big, so we need to take some of your property and distribute it further down the chain,'' says Lindsay. Advertisement The veep is 'very against large multinational corporations and the things that they do and wants to limit them.' But why? Large companies get large mostly by doing things right. Businesses don't make profits unless they please their customers. Look at places that mostly embrace free markets — the United States, Singapore, Switzerland, New Zealand and Hong Kong (until China's government clamped down). Advertisement These are good places to live. People prosper when markets are free. 'It works!' says Lindsay. 'When you have free people who can engage freely with one another and trade . . . you actually have a rising of all ships. Because what you have is a people who are free to do with their things as they will. 'They, therefore, can implement their stuff, their money, their resources, their talents, whatever they happen to be, to solve problems for other people. And when you solve a problem for other people, even if it's a kind of silly thing, like entertaining them with a silly game on their phone, when you solve a problem for other people, they'll give you money for it in exchange.' Exactly: Trade is win-win. Otherwise, we wouldn't engage in it. So it puzzles me that as markets continue to lift more people out of poverty, capitalism faces more attacks — even from the right. 'The problem,' says Lindsay, is 'it requires people to be free . . . You can't control people who are free. 'So we need to have a government system to tell them to do the right thing in the name of the common good. That's the mentality.' Advertisement Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Lindsay once hoaxed a conservative magazine, American Reformer, into publishing part of the 'Communist Manifesto,' merely by substituting Christian nationalist language for words like 'proletariat.' When the editors learned that they'd been tricked, they left the article up, saying it was 'a reasonable aggregation of some New Right ideas.' Advertisement Yikes. Government-managed trade, protection for politically connected industries, state promotion of Christianity, speech restrictions, morality laws, state-owned industry, cronyism — these are bad ideas, no matter which side sells them. John Stossel is the author of 'Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.'
New York Post
23 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump admin hunts down 13K migrant kids after Biden admin lost track of 320K: ‘Children are being saved'
The Trump administration has located and rescued more than 13,000 migrant children who crossed the border without parents — after more than 320,000 kids were lost under the Biden administration, The Post has learned. The tough-on-immigration admin has also collared hundreds of migrant sponsors who are accused of committing disturbing crimes or abusing the children in their care. In one frightening case, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Newark arrested a sponsor who was found to be a Guatemalan fugitive wanted for two counts of attempted aggravated homicide in his home country. Advertisement Adelso Garcia Martinez, 29, was busted on May 13. 'It is deplorable to imagine that a wanted fugitive would find illegal shelter in the United States with a child in tow and later go on to sponsor another alien,' ICE HSI Newark Special Agent in Charge Ricky Patel said after the arrest. 3 ICE agents in Newark arrested a Guatemalan unaccompanied alien child sponsor wanted overseas for attempted aggravated homicide. ICE A shocking report released in August found that the Biden-Harris administration lost track of more than 320,000 migrant children who crossed the US-Mexico border alone. Advertisement The unaccompanied migrants were released into the US without future immigration court dates — meaning there is no way to track their whereabouts — or they failed to show up to court. Thousands of the kids were also released to sponsors who were poorly vetted, meaning the vulnerable minors were put at risk of sex trafficking, forced labor, and other forms of exploitation, the Homeland Security Inspector General's report said. In February, President Trump's Department of Health and Human Services announced it was launching an investigation into the troubling number of cases of unaccompanied migrant children who may have ended up in the hands of sexual predators and human traffickers because of lax vetting policies. Advertisement 'Children are being saved,' a Trump administration official told The Post of the effort to locate the kids lost under the previous administration. 3 Migrant group, including women and children, crossing the US border. Toby Canham for NY Post In another sickening case, a 15-year-old girl was rescued in New York after an Ecuadorian man impregnated her and then had his mother sponsor her so they could live together, the Department of Homeland Security told The Post. The sicko, who was not named, had been in a relationship with the child since she was 13 years old and had impregnated her before she crossed the southern border unaccompanied, the agency said. Advertisement His mom sponsored the teen in Harlem, where the trio lived together. Homeland Security agents in New York arrested the child predator on May 28. An HHS source told NewsNation that under the Trump admin, ICE had arrested 422 sponsors who are accused of abusing the minors in their care, or of other crimes. 3 Migrants sleeping in an El Paso shelter. James Breeden/Shutterstock for NY Post 'By leaving our borders open and even encouraging people to come here illegally, Biden enabled the largest human-trafficking operation in modern history,' Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement to The Post on Friday. 'We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to eradicate human trafficking operations targeting the United States. Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, and working together at every level of government, we can win this fight. And we will,' she added. Child migrants who cross the border illegally without parents are apprehended by border agents and handed off to HHS, which helps them locate their US sponsors. Sponsors of migrant minors don't have to be family members. The rescued migrant children are either reunited with their families in their home countries or are placed into HHS foster care, sources told The Post. Advertisement President Trump's 'border czar' Tom Homan also recently detailed some of the upsetting cases involving kids on Miranda Devine's 'Pod Force One' podcast. 'We rescued victims of sex trafficking [and] two weeks ago, we rescued a 14-year-old that was already pregnant, living with adult men,' he said. 'We rescued some victims of forced labor. We found children working on ranches and chicken farms, not going to school, but enslaved labor in the United States of America,' he continued. 'Some of the children we found [were] perfectly fine with their families … They just didn't respond to call-ins [because they] didn't want to face the consequences of immigration court.' Advertisement Even after receiving briefings on the horrific cases involving migrant minors, the Biden admin allegedly took 'no meaningful steps' to address the issue, according to the Homeland Security Inspector General's report.
