Federal Criminal Law and Its Enforcement

The Eighth Edition of this classic casebook, which is designed to teach a broad-coverage federal criminal law course, is also well-suited for teaching white collar crime offerings. This volume addresses the key issues in federal criminal law and also includes material on timely, real-world topics, such as:

• the application of a federal obstruction of justice statute to attempts to impede Congress' certification of the 2020 Presidential election results, as set forth in the Supreme Court's Fischer opinion;
• the intersection of the opioid crisis, federal drug laws and mens rea principles as illustrated by the Supreme Court's decision in Ruan, a "pill mill" case in which a physician allegedly over-prescribed oxycodone;
• the constitutional status of various federal firearms proscriptions in light of the Supreme Court's decisions in Bruen and Rahimi, discussion of new laws respecting straw purchasers, and the discussion of the latest Supreme Court cases interpreting the Armed Career Criminal Act;
• the issue of improper political pressure on federal prosecutorial decision-making, with reference to recent investigations and prosecutions;
• enforcement of immigration crimes and First Amendment implications, as addressed in United States v. Hansen;
• the latest issues in federal public corruption prosecutions, such as the quid pro quo requirement in federal program bribery (Synder), and the 2023 Foreign Corruption Prevention Act;
• two new chapters: Group Crime (conspiracy, RICO, and CCE) and Criminal Enforcement of Civil Rights (covering 18 U.S.C. sections 241, 242, 245, and 249);
• recent Supreme Court limits on the mail and wire fraud statutes (as found in the Percoco, Ciminelli, and Koukisis cases);
• significant changes to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, including a guideline on the controversial issue of using acquitted conduct.

Imprint: West Academic Publishing
Series: American Casebook Series
Publication Date: 04/28/2025