Joe Dwinell has reported on the “blockbuster lawsuit” filed by John Wilson and his son against Netflix for its documentary that repeats the many falsehoods that Netflix made the mistake of crediting. Netflix made the mistake of believing everything in the federal indictment charging Wilson with fraud for allegedly bribing his children’s way into elite universities. After a trial before a federal district judge who seemed not to understand either the facts or the law, Wilson’s conviction and prison sentence were finally reversed by the U.  S. Court of Appeals.

Wilson’s conviction is a classic example of the problem that allows the feds to indict, as the saying goes, “even a ham sandwich.” Federal criminal laws are exceeding vague, declining to define “fraud.” Instead, the applicable federal statute criminalizes generic fraud when the means of interstate commerce or communications, or the Postal Service, are involved – in other words, just about everything in human life and commerce. The Department of Justice vastly over-reached in its attempt to destroy the Wilson family (father and children – both of whom were superior athletes and needed no illegal boost).

While I personally do not approve of defamation lawsuits – I am a First Amendment free speech/free press absolutist – one can understand Wilson’s ire at the constant repetition by news media that still believe federal prosecutors who have at their command such dangerously vague statutes. Indeed, I wrote a book on the problem in 2009, and updated it in 2011. The title is “Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent.” And I am not alone. Earlier this year, U. S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch published a book entitled “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law.” To Justice Gorsuch’s credit, he cites my book as a predecessor to his own.  This is not a new problem. As long as federal statutes are as vague and broad as they are, this problem will persist. Maybe it’s time for Gorsuch’s brothers and sisters on the high court to step in and say “enough  is enough.”

Harvey A. Silverglate

Cambridge

The voter-approved millionaires tax took in about $2.2 billion last year.  In 2022, taxpayers exited the state at a rate that cost the state $3.9 billion in lost tax revenue.  A simple math problem shows that our state has nothing to be smile about.  Our state’s business tax climate dropped to the fifth worst state in the country for competitiveness last year.  Is that something to get excited about? No, it isn’t.  Businesses create jobs.  Jobs create pay checks.  Paychecks put money in people’s pockets and spur the local economy.  Taxes take money out of paychecks.  Economics 101 has never been a prerequisite for state government.

Donald Houghton

Quincy