Donald Trump just made it harder to go to federal prison

I am not completely sure how to summarize this action, but it does seem to me that this action is the most Libertarian action this country has ever seen.

Here is the actual order:

First section of the order:

"Section 1. Purpose. The United States is drastically overregulated. 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. Worse, many carry potential criminal penalties for violations. The situation has become so dire that no one -– likely including those charged with enforcing our criminal laws at the Department of Justice — knows how many separate criminal offenses are contained in the Code of Federal Regulations, with at least one source estimating hundreds of thousands of such 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.

This status quo is absurd and unjust. It allows the executive branch to write the law, in addition to executing it. That situation can lend itself to abuse and weaponization by providing Government officials tools to target unwitting individuals. It privileges large corporations, which can afford to hire expensive legal teams to navigate complex regulatory schemes and fence out new market entrants, over average Americans.

The purpose of this order is to ease the regulatory burden on everyday Americans and ensure no American is transformed into a criminal for violating a regulation they have no reason to know exists."

I think more eyes should be on this, but to me it seems that this is a very good thing for every American whether they understand it or not.

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This could have wide ranging impacts especially coupled with the Enron (?) case where SCOTUS disallowed regulatory over-reach by agencies not specifically authorized to make rules/penalties. ATF waffling about definition of a pistol vs rifle and what constitutes a home-built (a time honored American tradition that goes back to the days of our founding BTW) firearm comes to mind.

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Judges have written books about this and been interviewed ad nauseum.
You can’t get through the day; without committing at least, three felonies!

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Thanks for the Good News, Robert! :sweat_smile:

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