Review — Three Felonies a Day (Harvey A. Silverglate)
If you’ve ever believed that law-respecting individuals are safely insulated from the criminal justice system, Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent by Harvey A. Silverglate will challenge that assumption. Silverglate, a veteran civil-liberties attorney, argues that America’s legal code has expanded so far—and become so ambiguous—that even conscientious professionals can inadvertently violate multiple federal statutes in ordinary life.
Summary
Silverglate’s premise is stark: federal criminal law has grown so vast and vague that no citizen can confidently live without “breaking the law.” He traces how the original aims of criminal law were displaced by a dense lattice of statutes, regulations, and prosecutorial powers. Across real cases, he shows how vague laws are leveraged to secure convictions where misunderstandings or regulatory slip-ups once would have sufficed for dismissal. The result blends constitutional defense, legal analysis, and a public warning.
Key Takeaways
1) Overcriminalization Erodes Society
Creating countless, overlapping federal crimes—often defined in vague terms—gives prosecutors wide latitude to interpret intent. The sheer volume of potential offenses risks turning law into a tool of control rather than justice.
2) Discretion Without Accountability
Federal prosecutors function as “kingmakers,” deciding who gets charged and how severely, with limited oversight. This dynamic encourages coercive plea bargains under threat of sprawling indictments, undermining due process.
3) Ignorance of the Law Is Inevitable
The maxim “ignorance of the law is no excuse” collapses under modern complexity. Average professionals can’t reliably know the boundaries of lawful conduct when statutes and rules sprawl across code and regulations.
4) Real Cases, Real People
From physicians penalized for administrative billing errors to executives ensnared by broadly interpreted mail-fraud statutes, commonplace mistakes are reframed as crimes. Vague laws become convenient vehicles for convictions.
5) Public & Media Incentives
Tough-on-crime narratives are politically popular and media-friendly, yet the same prosecutorial tools can be turned on anyone.
6) Reform Needs Clarity & Restraint
Silverglate advocates legislative restraint and intelligible laws. Crimes should be intentional and comprehensible to ordinary citizens; constitutional safeguards can still protect liberty if the public demands it.
Practical Value for Everyone
Legal professionals will recognize how statutory overreach and prosecutorial incentives can produce outcomes at odds with justice. Policy thinkers, journalists, and activists gain a map of institutional dysfunction and incentives. General readers get awareness—and a sober appreciation for how easily the system can ensnare the well-intentioned.
Final Rating
4.6/5
Not light reading—and it shouldn’t be. This is legal literacy with teeth, a cautionary work in the tradition of broad social warnings about power.
If Charles Petzold’s Code opens the logic behind machines, then Three Felonies a Day exposes the illogic creeping into modern law—a system now so complex that outcomes can depend more on the wielder of the codebook than on the code itself.
Format & Style
Silverglate writes with the precision of an attorney and urgency of a whistleblower. The tone is formal yet accessible, alternating between moral argument and case citation. The pacing is deliberate; case after case layers until the scale of dysfunction becomes impossible to ignore.
Links
- HNB Book Page — Three Felonies a Day
- Publisher — Encounter Books title page
- Author — Harvey A. Silverglate (site)
- Amazon — book listing
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Further Resources
This Three Felonies a Day review is part of Hacker News Books’ ongoing series on nonfiction that challenges assumptions about systems—code, law, or bureaucracy.
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