Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch Challenges Overcriminalization During Book Tour at Presidential Libraries

CNN
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Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch criticized the expansion of federal criminal law during his appearance Friday, telling an audience in California that Americans’ freedoms are at risk “when there’s a law against everything.”

“What happens to your respect for the law when everyone is a criminal?” Gorsuch said during a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

“I’m not going to go back to 1789,” the conservative said. “I’m just asking for a little common sense along the way.”

Gorsuch, former President Donald Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee and a man who has at times been libertarian, is on a book tour to promote a book he released Tuesday: “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law,” which focuses on the expansion of federal regulation and what he describes as a convoluted series of federal crimes that no one can fully understand.

Gorsuch spoke at a library in Yorba Linda, Calif., on the 50th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation. The judge did not mention the historic event.

In both the book and the speech, Gorsuch tells the story of John Yates, a fisherman who was caught with a small red groper. Yates ordered the fish thrown overboard before authorities could confirm he had violated federal fishing regulations, according to court documents.

Yates was convicted of violating a federal law that prohibits people from altering or destroying “any record, document, or tangible thing” to impede an investigation. Prosecutors argued that the fish fell within the definition of a “tangible thing.”

Another section of the same law was at issue in a major Supreme Court case this year involving people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors sought to charge members of the crowd with attempting to disrupt an official proceeding.

The 6-3 majority limited the circumstances in which prosecutors could bring such a charge.

Gorsuch joined the majority in that opinion.

“What are we going to do about this?” Gorsuch asked Friday, addressing what he sees as a broader problem of overcriminalization. “Nine old men in Washington can’t do this. I really think it has to come from you.”

That was a theme Gorsuch addressed during a speech earlier in the day at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Gorsuch blamed the proliferation of federal regulations in part on what he described as a lack of trust and civility among Americans.

“More and more Americans believe that people from the other political party are not just wrong … they are evil,” Gorsuch said Thursday night. “We have to be able to talk to each other. We have to be able to lose as well as win.”