Harvey Silverglate

They decide who's guilty and then they go about concocting a case against the person who they want to get.

So the goal is not to find the truth or... It's to solve the case and close it and enhance their reputations.

Well, it closes the case if they falsely imprison an innocent man.

There are issues in closing cases.

Well, wiretapping and electronic surveillance are very, very intrusive.

And I think that the circumstance that these tools are used should be narrowed.

For example, they're used in a lot of drug cases.

Since I don't think drugs should be illegal in any event, I certainly think that it's a terrible violation of privacy to use wiretapping in a drug case.

I could see it in cases of murder.

possibly in cases of serious extortion, but on other kinds of crimes where they wiretap, especially drug cases.

I believe drugs should all be legalized anyway.

I think the price we pay as a society is not worth it.

Well, the problem is that under the federal criminal code, particularly the federal criminal code,

It is very easy to be charged with a crime.

Now, why?

Under the Constitution, the federal government does not have plenary criminal jurisdiction.

That's up to the state.

How is it that the feds indict in so many areas of American life?

It's because the Supreme Court has allowed the following absolutely insane situation to prevail.

Anything can be made a federal crime if, in the course of the commission of the crime, the means of interstate communication or travel are used.