Diverse Coalition Releases ‘Criminal Law Checklist for Federal Legislators’ at Capitol Hill Briefing
WASHINGTON, DC (March 24, 2011) – As part of an ongoing, multi-front effort to rein in the burgeoning problem of overcriminalization, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), joined by the Heritage Foundation and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, today held a briefing on Capitol Hill for media and congressional staffers focused on overcriminalization in the Dodd-Frank Act. At that briefing, the groups released a Criminal Law Checklist for Federal Legislators. This checklist, which was jointly prepared and issued by these three organizations and the Washington Legal Foundation, provides common sense guidance for legislators considering the introduction or passage of any criminal law on the federal level.
“This checklist is another tool to rein in the twin problems of overcriminalization and the overfederalization of criminal law. NACDL is providing it to lawmakers as part of an ongoing effort in concert with like-minded organizations from across the political spectrum,” explained Shana-Tara Regon, director of white collar crime policy at NACDL. “There are already the approximately 4,500 federal crimes in the code and tens of thousands in the regulations. The checklist presents precisely the questions that justice, fairness and common sense dictate must be fairly answered before Congress adds to them.”
The Criminal Law Checklist for Federal Legislators is available on NACDL’s web site here.