The Long Overdue Decriminalization of Regulatory Offenses Has Arrived

A New Trump Executive Order Takes Dead Aim

Dept of Agriculture — Office of Inspector General; Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations; Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Dept. of Commerce — Office of Inspector General; Commerce Dept. Police; Office of Export Enforcement; Maritime Fisheries Service Off. of Law Enforcement.

Dept. of Defense — Office of Inspector General Criminal Investigative Service; Pentagon Police; Dept. of Defense Police; Defense Logistics Agency Police; NSA Police; DIA Police; Army Criminal Investigations Division; Army Civilian Police; Navy Criminal Investigation Service; Dept of Navy Civilian Police; Marine Corps Criminal Investigations Division; Marine Corps Civilian Police; Air Force Office of Special Investigations; Air Force Civilian Police.

Dept. of Education — Office of Inspector General; Protective Services Division; Office for Civil Rights.

Dept. of Energy — Office of Inspector General; Nuclear Security Administration Office of Secure Transportation and Federal Protective Forces.

Health and Human Services — Office of Inspector General; Food & Drug Admin. Office of Criminal Investigations; National Institutes of Health Police.

Homeland Security — Office of Inspector General; Federal Protective Service; Coast Guard Law Enforcement Office; Coast Guard Police; Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol; CBP Air and Marine Operations; CBP Office of Field Operations; Office of Professional Responsibility; FEMA Office of Security; Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations; ICE Removal Operations; ICE Office of Intelligence; ICE Office of Professional Responsibility; Secret Service Protective Detail; USSS Uniformed Division; TSA Air Marshal Service; United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate.

Housing and Urban Development — Office of Inspector General; Protective Services Division.

Dept. of Interior — Office of Inspector General; Bureau of Indian Affairs Police; Bureau of Land Management Office of Law Enforcement and Security; Bureau of Reclamation Security Response Force; National Park Service Rangers; National Park Service Park Police; Fish and Wildlife Service Offie of Law Enforcement; Division of Refuge Law Enforcement.

Dept. of Justice — Office of Inspector General; FBI; DEA; ATF; US Marshal; Bureau of Prisons; Office of Professional Responsibility.

Dept. of Labor — Office of Inspector General

Dept. of State — Office of Inspector General; Diplomatic Security Service

Dept. of Transportation — Office of Inspector General; Merchant Marine Academy Office of Public Safety; Nat. Highway Traffic Safety Admin Office of Odometer Fraud Investigations

Dept. of Treasury — Office of Inspector General; Treas. Inspector General for Tax Administration; Special Inspector General for Pandemic Response; Special Inspector General for Trouble Asset Relief Program; Bureau of Engraving and Printing Police; Fin. Crimes Invest. Network Off. of Special Investigations; IRS Criminal Investigations; U.S. Mint Police.

In addition to those Executive Branch Departments add: CIA Police; EPA OIG and Criminal Investigations; NASA OIG and Office of Protective Services; Postal Service OIG, Postal Inspection Service and Postal Police; Federal Reserve Police AND Federal Reserve Board Police; Amtrak OIG and Amtrak Police Department; Tennessee. Valley Authority. OIG and Police and Emergency Management; Nuclear Regulatory Commission. OIG and Office of Investigations; etc.

The list above is a NOT complete listing of federal agencies and departments that employ law enforcement officers who carry guns. They carry guns because certain aspects of federal law define crimes in their areas of jurisdictional responsibility, and where a violation can result in an arrest. Because those crimes bring these officers into contact with alleged criminals who might need to be arrested and taken to jail, they must be armed for their own protection when necessary to make an arrest.

The FBI is the only federal law enforcement agency with authority to enforce all federal criminal statutes and criminal regulatory provisions. The other agencies and departments with law enforcement components have jurisdiction over specific areas of federal laws/regs that are specifically related to the operations of their agency or department.

Most federal criminal statutes are found in Title 18 of the U.S. Code. But there are criminal statutes scattered throughout other Titles as well. Drug trafficking offenses are set forth in Title 21 — “Food and Drugs.” Criminal immigration offenses are set forth in Title 8 — “Aliens and Nationality.” Title 15 — “Commerce and Trade” includes criminal offenses related to unlawful gambling enterprises. You get the picture.

But, more significantly, while there are 54 “Titles” making up the U.S. Code, there are another 50 “Titles” that comprise the “Code of Federal Regulations” — or “CFR”. These are agency passed regulations that often go into mind-numbing detail into how statutes in the U.S. Code — passed by Congress — are to be enforced by the Executive branch departments. The “Titles” between the two sets of volumes do not align exactly, as some CFR Titles include regulations from more than one agency.

For example, while Title 21 of the U.S. Code — “Food and Drugs” — is relatively small compared to other titles, 21 CFR is massive in its scope. It involves everything from regulating food to cosmetics to medications to chemicals — and beyond. Manufacturers, distributors and retailers all fall under different regulatory provisions defining lawful and unlawful ways of engaging in commerce with products covered by Title 21. Many provisions, if violated, expose the offender to criminal penalties, including jail time.

This is repeated across most of the other 50 Titles of the CFR. Each Title has numerous “Parts.” It is estimated that there are something close to 48,000 “Parts” in the 50 Titles, running a combined total of more than 175,000 pages. Interwoven in this morass of regulations and rules are tens of thousands of provisions that are criminal offenses when violated.

Most regulations fall in the category of “malum prohibitum” — a Latin phrase meaning the conduct is unlawful not because it is inherently wrong, but because a law making body has determined the conduct should be prohibited. For example, it is unlawful to travel in vehicle at 56 mph where a speed limit of 55 mph only because that has been established by the municipal or state authorities.

Other crimes fall into the category of “malum in se” where the very act has an element of evil or wrongfulness inherent in it — like murder — that warrants making the conduct illegal.

Regulatory offenses being largely malum prohibitum are often akin to what the law describes as “strict liability.” This means that the simple doing of the act alone, without knowledge of the existence of the regulation or that the conduct was in any way prohibited, is all that is required to be found guilty of a crime. Never has the phrase “ignorance of the law is not a defense” had a more idiotic application.

On May 9, 2025, President Trump took a huge step in addressing what he called the “over-criminalization” of federal regulations. He signed an Executive Order requiring — within the next 365 days — every agency or department of the Executive Branch must provide to the Office of Management and Budget a Report that lists of all criminal regulatory offenses that are enforceable by the agency/department; the range of penalties that may be applied to violations; and whether the regulation creates “strict liability” or does it require “actual knowledge” by the violator. This Report must be posted on the agency/ department webpage, and it must be updated annually to ensure its accuracy. The prosecution of any person under any regulation not published in the Report shall be disfavored. The head of each agency/department must consider whether a regulation is included in the Report before making a criminal referral to DOJ for prosecution based on a violation of a regulation.

In addition, future rule-making by agencies or departments should strive to draft regulations requiring actual knowledge by the alleged violator of the regulated conduct. Any new regulation providing for “strict liability” without actual knowledge must be submitted to OMB for special approval before it can go into effect.

Within 30 days after submission of the Report, the head of the agency/ department must file another Report with OMB addressing whether any existing regulations not requiring actual knowledge should be changed so as to require such knowledge as part of any criminal prosecution. For any regulation that the head of the agency recommends remain subject to “strict liability” — i.e., no actual knowledge — a justification for leaving the regulation as written must be provided.

“Actual knowledge” shall become the “default” requirement for regulations, and “strict liability” will be the exception to the rule and must have a justification for such included as part of the rule-making.

THIS, dear readers, is how you begin to lift the nail-studded boot of the “Administrative State” off the necks of the citizenry. Excessive regulatory enforcement via criminal prosecutions pursued by petty bureaucrats does harm to the economy no different than overt criminal acts of fraud.

These agencies are where the “true believers” reside. Working alongside the “true believers” committed to the mission of agencies like EPA and DOE are the civil servant lifers for whom preservation of position, salary, and pension finish far ahead of the interests of taxpayers.

Shifting regulatory enforcement in the direction of civil claims and away from criminal prosecutions frees up law enforcement resources to pursue actual criminals engaged in fraud and other orchestrated activity.

It also reduces the need for these dozens of agencies/departments to each have their own cadre of gun-toters and door-busters to make arrests when someone washes a fish in a national forest campground at a faucet not designated for fish washing, or to bring an immediate halt to the crime of selling onion rings comprised of chopped onions and not from whole rings of a sliced onion.

Yep — you can go to jail for that. Look it up.