Hunter v. United States · ¶52

To be sure, this Court is not wholly responsible for these developments. Other causes are at play as well. Since the 1970s, the number of federal criminal laws has grown rapidly. The prison terms attached to federal crimes have also grown. Some now say there is not an adult American who has not committed one felony or another. D. Husak, Overcriminalization: The Limits of the Criminal Law 24 (2008). Federal sentencing guidelines, as well, currently recommend higher sentences for most defendants who “exercis[e their] constitutional right to a trial.” USSG § 3E1.1, and comment., n. 2. And while prosecutors once felt constrained by “the traditional maxim that `an indictment should not include more than one felony,' . . . today's prosecutors [often] bring as many overlapping felony charges as they can in a single case.” Barrett v. United States, 607 U. S. 128, 150–151 (2026) (Gorsuch, J.,…

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