Federal Criminal Law in the United States

Federal Criminal Law Cases

In United States v. Maynard (615 F.3d 544 (D.C. Cir. 2010), cert. granted sub nom. United States v. Jones, 131 S.Ct. 3064 (2011)), the Court considered whether the warrantless use of a tracking device on a person’s vehicle to monitor its movements on public streets amounts to an unlawful invasion of privacy. Government officials put a GPS device on a suspect’s truck and tracked the vehicle 24 hours a day for a month. Does doing this without a warrant infringe the reasonable expectation of privacy, as the D.C. Circuit held? Or should the Court accept the government’s view that there is no such expectation when the case involves the movement of a vehicle on public roads?.

In another 2011 case, it turns on whether the Fourth Amendment is violated when a jail automatically conducts a strip search of every individual arrested, regardless of circumstances and no matter how minor the offense. Several circuits have ruled that prisons cannot search an arrestee charged with a minor offense unless there is reasonable suspicion that the individual is concealing a weapon or other contraband. The Third Circuit, though, upheld the policy of a New Jersey jail that allows strip searches of all arrestees without any need to articulate a basis or reasonable suspicion (Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of County of Burlington, 621 F.3d 296 (3d Cir. 2010), cert. granted, 131 S.Ct. 1816 (2011)).

Federal Criminal Law Background

United States Constitution

According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, about its article titled FEDERAL CRIMINAL LAW, in the past two decades, Congress has enacted many new types of criminal statutes, such as the racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act (RICO) and the continuing criminal enterprise and money-laundering offenses. New approaches to criminal penalties and sentencing have been established. The same legal reference osbserves that, if a constitutional snapshot is taken of the current status of the federal criminal law, the picture that emerges is somewhat changed from a decade ago. It continues to be the case that the Supreme Court does not with great frequency label as unconstitutional federal law.

Federal Jurisdiction

Main issues:

• Case Law: United States v. Jimenez-Torres
• See the information on Federalism and Criminal Law in this legal Encyclopedia.

Case Law about the Federal Mens Rea Doctrine

• History: United States v. Dotterweich and Morissette v. United States
• Factual Knowledge: Staples v. United States
• Legal Knowledge (see also Mistakes of Law in Federal Criminal Cases in this legal Encyclopedia): Bryan v. United States and Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States.

List of Some Popular Federal Criminal Law Topics

• Federal Criminal Law Ouline
• Federal Criminal Law Statutes
• Federal Criminal Law and its Enforcement
• Federal Criminal Law Center
• Federal Criminal Law Blog
• Federal Criminal Law CLE
• Federal Criminal Laws List
• Federal Criminal Lawyer