Prosecutorial abuse in the securities laws

Author: Timothy Sandefur

Check out the chilling of the abuse of prosecutorial power this white collar crime case. (HT: Tom Palmer). This time, a brave and worthy judge did the right thing. But how often do government lawyers get away with this kind of abuse without anyone ever learning about it? Sadly, in the realm of "securities fraud" and similar white collar prosecutions, such abuses are very common; people tend to ignore injustice when it happens to rich folk and corporations. We'll have more to say about the abuse of laws regulating the economy later this week. For now, check out the comments of Harvey Silverglate, who has been blogging about related subjects at The Volokh Conspiracy this week. His book, Three Felonies A Day, is essential to understanding the kind of prosecutorial vagueness made possible in part by the vague and incomprehensible laws businesses are subject to.