The CVS arson doesn’t seem at all odd to me. I’m not aware of any dollar limitation on what ATF will do re: arson. It’s very similar to a Hobbs Act robbery; there definitely isn’t a dollar limit and even to the extent there is (for sentencing purposes) it sure as shit isn’t $1m and doesn’t require lives lost.…

Terrorism is a whole new issue in this game. The DOJ I think is largely loathe to charge anything under terrorism statutes that doesn’t fit the strict definition of terrorism (i.e., international terrorism v. domestic terrorism). I don’t really know the policy behind that one, but I agree there is a good argument that…

They’d def have the authority to investigate it but I bet the basis of that is a hate crime, not just plain ole arson. (And they should obviously be investigating these as hate crimes. It's just different than the cvs arson)

I’m not a church goer myself but one of my friends is a long time Presbyterian and made a pretty passionate speech a few months back when her church was voting on whether they’d perform same sex marriages. The church overwhelmingly approved it. I asked her once whether anyone spoke in opposition (this church is in the…

I think there’s a presumption of interstate nexus of the person has been missing for more than a year... But remember that just because FBI has a policy of helping investigate (which is awesome!) that doesn’t mean the case qualifies to be charged in the federal system. Personally if there were evidence the child was…

I would like to clarify because I can't edit. There may be federal jurisdiction. I can't say no. It would just be more highly fact specific than a CVS for example.

They definitely do. And that may be enough. But it would depend much more on the individual church and certainly isn't as obvious as a convenience store.

The federal kidnapping laws still have an interstate nexus requirement. If you kidnap a person and solely travel in state it is not going to be a federal crime. There comstitution limits what can be a federal crime.

I think if anything I’m wrong on the facts and right on the law lol. It’s kind of hard to conceptualize what makes a federal crime a federal crime when you don’t do this for a living. I seriously struggled with the commerce clause stuff until I became a prosecutor.

Jia this is really powerful and beautifully written but I think it’s a little bit of a false analogy at least as far as the law goes. ATF wouldn’t investigate a church burning the way it would a convenience store because there’s no federal jurisdiction there. Convenience stores deal in goods that have to travel in…

The boaters are always repeat offenders too. I think that fish and wildlife is trying to increase the fine table for it. Right now speeding in a manatee zone is like $150 which isn’t really a sufficient deterrent to most boaters who, As evidenced by their owning a boat, usually have some extra disposable income. And…

Jaden Smith’s Twitter is a national treasure so I'm sure this comment was meant as a compliment.

A good portion of each of my months is dedicated to dealing with manatee tickets issued by fish and wildlife. Those guys take their manatee protection duties very seriously. Most people don't realize that federal tickets are a thing...

Never have I connected so much with a tweet beat as today. I fell you, Neil. I feel so you hard.

It may come as a surprise since it's clearly the coolest city in the state, but charleston isn't the capital. The statehouse is in Columbia and that's where she removed the flag.

Lol. You win.

The spelling of jaeger totally sold you out, bro!

I'm the exact opposite: currently I don't think it would bother me (and practically may be a good thing) but I get freaked out that it may! Who knows. ¯\_ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ_/¯

Get a job like mine where you worry about criminals tracking down your kids based on your name and be happy that your name is different than everyone else’s? :-)

I'm just surprised Kara hasn't started bitching about how your opinion doesn't matter because she doesn't work for you and it's obviously a shark.