Bacon, Guns & Whiskey

As of 2018, the size of federal law was 60,000 pages, and the COVID-19 relief package was 5,000 pages by itself (according to The Atlantic). In 1982 (not a typo) there were more than 3,000 federal crimes — no one knows how many there are today. If it’s not possible, then it’s not possible to follow them, right? In fact, the Heritage Foundation said that they “developed an algorithm to [try to] quantify the number of statutes … that create one or more federal crimes.” They had to create a sophisticated computer search because doing so manually was (presumably) not possible. And they went on to conclude that even their well-designed algorithm “[could not] precisely count [the number of] discrete crimes” but estimated the number at just under 5,200(!!!). It’s so bad that the Heritage Foundation concluded that “federal crimes are too diffuse, too numerous, and too vague for the average citizen to know what the law requires.”

As the now infamous video from the Regent University School of Law demonstrated, it is illegal to “import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, possess, or purchase any fish, wildlife, or plant taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any Federal, State, foreign, or Indian tribal law, treaty, or regulation” (Professor Attorney James Duane quoting the Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. 3370-3378). HOLY COW!! If the fresh meat, fish, or produce you just bought at the grocery store violates a law anywhere in the world, you are guilty of a federal crime. Here’s a simple example: it is illegal to slaughter beef in most places in India but, if the beef you picked up for your barbecue was processed in India (how could you know it’s not legal when you pick it up in the store’s packaging, after all??) then you have possessed it and are guilty, even if you put it back down!!

And that’s one example that someone else looked up — imagine how many others are out there that no one has discovered yet.

Let’s look at another one. If you ‘re in Maine and send an text message to your friend in New Hampshire asking for $20 for gas (when you really need it to pay your bar bill) then, according to the Department of Justice, you’ve likely committed wire fraud — a very serious federal crime — even if your friend says no.

The average size of a bill back in 1948 was 2.5 pages. Today? 18 pages on average, but it is not uncommon to see them in the hundreds (and even thousands) of pages. Hence, you and me cannot possibly read and understand them — and even the representatives who are charged with voting on them often hire “specialists” to read the bills for them.

We have to get back to a place where you and me can understand the law, and a smaller government (that needs fewer laws to do what it is charged with doing) is a decent place to start.