Writing more than two centuries ago in Federalist No. 62, James Madison, the future fourth president of the United States, warned, “It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.”
After fighting and winning a war of independence from a government that criminalized too much, the writers of the Constitution identified just three federal crimes — treason, piracy, and counterfeiting. The Crimes Act of 1790 followed up, adding 23 more offenses. Imagine a nation with just 26 listed crimes!
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