BEALE
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747
ESSAYS
THE MANY FACES OF
OVERCRIMINALIZATION: FROM MORALS
AND MATTRESS TAGS TO
OVERFEDERALIZATION
SARA SUN BEALE*
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ...............................................................................................748
I. Setting the Stage: The States Retain Laws Regulating Morals,
and the Federal Government Criminalizes Virtually Everything ...750
A. State Morals Legislation: Old Laws That Stay on the
Books.......................................................................................750
B. Federal Criminal Law: Many New Laws and Many More
Prosecutions.............................................................................753
II. Why It Matters: The Vices of Morals Legislation and Too
Many Federal Criminal Laws .........................................................756
A. Amanda Smisek, Kobe Bryant, James Yee, and Morals
Charges ....................................................................................756
B. James McFarland, Andre Curtis, and Federalizing
Everyday Crime.......................................................................760
C. The Common Vices of Both Morals Legislation and
Overbroad Federal Criminal Law............................................766
1. Other values and rights threatened by
morals offenses ..................................................................767
* I would like to thank Megan Walsh >06, Chris Kocher >06, and Tom McCudden
>05 for their research assistance, and Sarah Welling and other participants in the University
of Kentucky=s faculty workshop for their helpful comments on an early draft of this Essay.
BEALE
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AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW
[Vol. 54:747
2. Other values and rights threatened by
overfederalization ..............................................................768
3. Why politics leads to retaining morals offenses a