Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent [Hardcover]

Harvey A. Silverglate (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1594032556 | ISBN-13: 978-1594032554 | Publication Date: September 1, 2009

The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The volume of federal crimes in recent decades has increased well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, handing federal prosecutors an additional trove of vague and exceedingly complex and technical prohibitions to stick on their hapless targets. The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to “white collar criminals,” state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the integrity of our constitutional democracy hangs in the balance.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

HARVEY A. SILVERGLATE is counsel to Boston’s Zalkind, Rodriguez, Lunt & Duncan LLP, specializing in criminal defense, civil liberties, and academic freedom/student rights law. He is co-founder and Chairman of FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) and is a regular columnist for The Boston Phoenix. Silverglate has been published in The National Law Journal, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere. He is author of The Shadow University with Alan Charles Kors.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 325 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594032556
• ISBN-13: 978-1594032554
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #94 in Books > Law > Constitutional Law

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

111 of 117 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a lucid and powerful indictment of federal criminal law enforcement, September 21, 2009

By 

Malick Ghachem (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent (Hardcover)

This is a very thoughtful and vigorously argued book about the injustices that arise when prosecutors seek to expand the reach of federal criminal statutes beyond their proper field of application. The author has litigated many of the cases he discusses, and is able to translate the complexities of that experience intelligently and without condescension, but also without all of the unnecessary technical details that lawyers writing for a general audience sometimes get bogged down in. Harvey Silverglate is an institution in his own right: a tireless advocate for civil liberties, prolific writer, and astute student of the law, there are few people who have a stronger commitment to illuminating the practical workings of the criminal justice system and their relationship to broader currents in the law. This is a must-read for those interested in criminal law, civil liberties, and the recent history of the Department of Justice, by a writer who has the courage of his convictions and voices them powerfully and well.

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, November 1, 2009

By 

Michael A. Fox - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent (Hardcover)

Harvey Silverglate does an extraordinary job analyzing the erosion of rights and the risks it carries to liberty in America in his book, Three Felonies a Day, How the Feds Target the Innocent.

This book is a must read for anyone who cares about the preservation of liberty and putting a check on the encroachment of the federal government in the every day lives of citizens.

He shows how the Department of Justice has led a steady march to expand their reach into the lives of ordinary Americans. The result? Panoply of laws giving them the right to prosecute just about anyone for anything at will.

Their broad application of the Deprivation of Honest Services Statutes in White Collar Crime and a host of other legal gymnastics give them a club every bit as powerful as the Soviet Union at the height of its power. In the Soviet Union and other dictatorships the tools of federalization of all crimes and trampling liberties usually reside in what is commonly called "Defamation Statutes."

Mr. Silverglate identifies numerous laws and Department of Justice interpretations and applications that give them authority rivaling the Soviet Union in its heyday. This boils down to a scandalous use of the federal instruments of powers residing in the executive branch at the Department of Justice that go unchecked.

For anyone who cares about liberty I recommend this book. It is makes a powerful contribution to the cause of justice and freedom and ranks as a modern day call to action equal to Thomas Paine's pamphlet, Common Sense published in 1776.

Mr. Siverglate brings current day threats to our liberties into focus just as Mr. Paine brought the need for the American Revolution into focus in 1776. For Mr. Paine liberty and freedom's enemy resided in King George of England; to Mr. Silverglate it can be found in a runaway Department of Justice intent on expanding its power to intrude and reach into the life of every American.

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking, brilliant and scary, October 23, 2009

By 

K. Unger (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent (Hardcover)

This book was recommended by a Federal Judge at a conference on ethics. It is a scary, insightful indictment of criminal prosecutions and the growing trend of prosecutors and judges encroaching on the legislative branch's power to enact laws through manipulation and overreaching interpretations of vague federal laws. It is not only a MUST read, but it is a MUST act upon as well. Kudos Silverglate!