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That's a great takeaway, but may not be practically achievable in the world where

> The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day.

-- https://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp...



That claim by the way, is totally unsubstantiated, and the cases have very questionable applicability to the "average professional".


I once saw a talk given by a lawyer on exactly this topic. It was a long time ago, unfortunately I won't be able to find it. Anyway, the takeaway is that there are plenty of Federal laws that are written in such a way that there is incredible room for interpretation by prosecutors. Vagueness and overbroad language to the point that indeed they can come up with some kind of crime pretty much any time they want to.

On the other hand, that kind of thing would not only be enough to bring a case. They use that kind of power to enhance their case against people they know are real criminals. Of course, the more the Justice Department becomes captured by bad actors, the less this applies.


In a state that I lived in, one day the laws changed and I became a felon overnight for not registering certain inanimate objects with my state govt.


I don’t think very many people charged with federal crimes are actually just innocent bystanders. So even if we grant that people are technically committing three felonies a day (which I don’t) I think the admonition can simply be read “don’t do crimes that a federal prosecutor might actually charge you with.”




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