Law Codes

The Code runs deep:

The "Code of Federal Regulations" contains 48,000 sections spanning 175,000 pages. Each and every one of those regulations is backed by the full force of law. An estimated (because no one wants to spend their life calculating it) 300,000 federal regulations carry criminal penalties for violating them. Ignorance of the law is not a defense. That's why we constantly read about silly enforcement actions like the biker who rode up and down Grand Teton only to be charged with a misdemeanor for riding on a closed trail, even though the National Park Service neglected to tell anyone it was off limits. Donald Trump is the first president to try to address this silliness. He issued an executive order last week that will attempt to mitigate this overregulation. Trump decried the ability of federal agencies to invent crimes. "Many of these regulatory crimes are 'strict liability' offenses, meaning that citizens need not have a guilty mental state to be convicted of a crime," Trump notes. "This status quo is absurd and unjust. It allows the executive branch to write the law, in addition to executing it."

If there's no regulation, they'll make one up...