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Due Process Institute works to ensure the federal criminal code is not expanded into areas traditionally handled by states without clear justification. Limiting overfederalization helps preserve federalism, prevents duplicative prosecutions, and ensures federal criminal enforcement is focused on uniquely national concerns.
Learn about Due Process Institute’s policy work to address overfederalization.
Discover how Due Process Institute advocates in the courts to fight against harmful overfederalization.
Interested in learning about what overfederalization is and how it impacts due process?
In Synder v. United States, we argued for the Supreme Court to reject expansive federal prosecutorial theories to maintain fair notice for defendants and keep federalism intact. Amorphous theories of criminal liability should not sway the courts and prosecutors should not be able to convert every local transgression into a federal crime.
Filed with Washington Legal Foundation.
The Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s ruling in a 6-3 decision and narrowed the scope of federal bribery prosecutions on June 27, 2024. You can read the decision here.
We thank Christopher Man and Abbe David Lowell for their pro bono work on this issue.