"The United States Code is the official codification of the general and permanent laws of the United States of America. The Code was first published in 1926, and a new edition of the code has been published every six years since 1934. The 2012 edition of the Code incorporates laws enacted through the One Hundred Twelfth Congress, Second Session, the last of which was signed by the President on January 15, 2013. It does not include laws of the One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, enacted between January 2, 2013, the date it convened, and January 15, 2013. By statutory authority this edition may be cited "U.S.C. 2012 ed." As adopted in 1926, the Code established prima facie the general and permanent laws of the United States. The underlying statutes reprinted in the Code remained in effect and controlled over the Code in case of any discrepancy. In 1947, Congress began enacting individual titles of the Code into positive law. When a title is enacted into positive law, the underlying statutes are repealed and the title then becomes legal evidence of the law. Currently, 26 of the 51 titles in the Code have been so enacted. These are identified in the table of titles near the beginning of each volume. The Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives continues to prepare legislation pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 285b to enact the remainder of the Code, on a title-by-title basis, into positive law. The 2012 edition of the Code was prepared and published under the supervision of Ralph V. Seep, Law Revision Counsel. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the contributions by all who helped in this work, particularly the staffs of the Office of the Law Revision Counsel and the Government Printing Office"--Preface.

In this “excellent book for people who like to start sentences with ‘Did you know that…’” (The New York Times), discover the most bizarre ways you might become a federal criminal in America—from mailing a mongoose to selling Swiss cheese without enough holes—written and illustrated by the creator of the wildly popular @CrimeADay Twitter account. Have you ever clogged a toilet in a national forest? That could get you six months in federal prison. Written a letter to a pirate? You might be looking at three years in the slammer. Leaving the country with too many nickels, drinking a beer on a bicycle in a national park, or importing a pregnant polar bear are all very real crimes, and this riotously funny, ridiculously entertaining, and fully illustrated book shows how just about anyone can become—or may already be—a federal criminal. Whether you’re a criminal defense lawyer or just a self-taught expert in outrageous offenses, How to Become a Federal Criminal is “an entertaining and humorous look at our criminal justice system” (Forbes).

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

Providing a complete view of U.S. legal principles, this book addresses distinct issues as well as the overlays and connections between them. It presents as a cohesive whole the interrelationships between constitutional principles, statutory criminal laws, procedural law, and common-law evidentiary doctrines. This fully revised and updated new edition also includes discussion questions and hypothetical scenarios to check learning. Constitutional principles are the foundation upon which substantive criminal law, criminal procedure law, and evidence laws rely. The concepts of due process, legality, specificity, notice, equality, and fairness are intrinsic to these three disciplines, and a firm understanding of their implications is necessary for a thorough comprehension of the topic. This book examines the tensions produced by balancing the ideals of individual liberty embodied in the Constitution against society’s need to enforce criminal laws as a means of achieving social control, order, and safety. Relying on his first-hand experience as a law enforcement official and criminal defense attorney, the author presents issues that highlight the difficulties in applying constitutional principles to specific criminal justice situations. Each chapter of the text contains a realistic problem in the form of a fact pattern that focuses on one or more classic criminal justice issues to which readers can relate. These problems are presented from the points of view of citizens caught up in a police investigation and of police officers attempting to enforce the law within the framework of constitutional protections. This book is ideal for courses in criminal law and procedure that seek to focus on the philosophical underpinnings of the system.

Defining Federal Crimes, Second Edition (available for free to students in e-book format) frames federal criminal law as a distinctive world created and shaped by the interplay between the three branches of the federal government. It provides an overview of basic doctrine while inviting students to explore the many difficult and unsettled questions that continue to perplex judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and policymakers. Particularly since students' basic Criminal Law courses draw on penal laws from any number of jurisdictions, this book will be their first exposure to an actual criminal law system, in which each law-shaping institution can react to the moves of the others. New to the Second Edition: Reorganization of the domestic Commerce Clause section and exploration of the Supreme Court's aborted engagement with the Treaty Power in Bond v. U.S. (Ch.2) Inclusion of the Court's deployment of the "rule of lenity" in Yates v. U.S. and reorganization of the mens rea section, including Elonis v. U.S. (Ch.3) Revisions to highlight the growing tension between the cases precluding mail fraud liability for deceit that "merely" causes the victim to enter into a transaction and those permitting liability an intangible property "right to control" theory (Ch.4) Considerable revision to the "under color of official right" extortion sections to accommodate McDonnell v. U.S.; a new case (Ocasio v. U.S.) exploring the interaction between "under color of official right" complicity and victim status in "fear of economic loss" extortion; a new case (U.S. v. Baroni--the "Bridgegate Case") offering an interesting use of the "misapplication" prong of section 18 U.S.C. 666 (Ch.6) New cases emerging from the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, including U.S. v. Miller (Ch.7) New case (Rosemond v. U.S.) in Aiding and Abetting discussion; a new section on Accessory after the Fact and Misprison of Felony liability, including U.S. v. Olson; substantial revision of Material Support of Terrorism section (Ch.8) Substantial updates to Ch.9, including coverage of the opioid crisis and enforcement responses to it; exploration of the Court's analysis of McFadden v. U.S.; discussion of Congress's use of its appropriations power to limit the federal prosecution of medicinal marijuana cases, including U.S. v. Kleinman; a new case (U.S. v. Campbell) about the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act; a new section on prior felony informations and their use for plea bargaining leverage, including U.S. v. Kupa; new discussion of the charging policies of the Attorneys General and of disparate judicial analyses of narcotics mandatory minimums Extended discussions of corporate liability to include recent judicial efforts to oversee deferred prosecution agreements (Ch.11) Reorganization of Ch.12, with more attention given to the clash between Chevron deference and the rule of lenity Professors and students will benefit from: Comprehensive overview of the many federal criminal offenses prosecutors use to charge political corruption and explores difficult questions associated with criminalizing aspects of the political process Framing of apparently diverse offenses like money laundering, RICO, and material support of terrorism as the complicity-broadening devices that make them intellectually interesting and practically potent Use of "Notes and Questions" to situate major cases in their proper political and historical contexts, tie together topics from different parts of the book that touch on similar themes, and explore lingering doctrinal ambiguities