In testimony invited by the House Judiciary Committee, Professor
James Strazzella this week urged Congress to consider the adverse
costs arising from the increasing enactment of federal crimes that
overlap with state crimes. Urging Congressional restraint, he noted
that such over-federalization diverts federal courts and agencies
from their important federal roles, while at the same time
stretching the delicate state-federal fabric. Strazzella identified
other costs to the American justice system, including procedural,
evidentiary and inequality concerns. The expanding duplicative and
selective system “has little to commend it and much to condemn it,”
he noted.
Strazzella holds the James G.
Schmidt Chair at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law.