Terrorism at Home: A Quick Look at Applicable Federal and State Criminal Laws

Publication Date: October 2001

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Law and ethics

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Abstract:

Terrorists' attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania have stimulated demands that the terrorists responsible and those like them be brought to justice. American criminal law already proscribes many of these acts of terrorism and there have been proposals to expand that coverage. The conduct we most often associate with terrorism --bombings, assassinations, armed assaults, kidnapping, threats -- are generally outlawed by both federal and state law. The federal approach builds upon individual national interests: the protection of federal officers, ensuring the safety of foreign diplomatic officials, guaranteeing the safety and integrity of the mails and the channels of interstate and foreign commerce, and honoring our international obligations.

Crime within the United States, however, has traditionally been the domain of state law. It is therefore not surprising that the reach of state criminal law, concerning terrorism as well as other matters, is more comprehensive than that of the federal laws which supplement it. Where federal law condemns presidential assassination, state law prohibits murdering anyone.

This report and a companion, CRS Report RS21034, Terrorism Abroad: A Quick Look at Applicable Federal and State Criminal Law, are abbreviated from portions of CRS Report 95-1050, Terrorism At Home and Abroad: Applicable Federal and State Criminal Laws, stripped of its footnotes and appendices. Introduction: More than a few federal criminal laws reach the politically motivated acts of physical violence and property destruction that are the part and parcel of terrorism. Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, was charged with and pled guilty to violations of federal explosives laws. As a result of bombing the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were indicted and convicted under federal laws outlawing the murder of federal law enforcement officers, bombing federal buildings, and the use of weapons of mass destruction. Charges against the terrorists involved in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center included violations of federal laws outlawing the interstate transportation of explosives for unlawful use; bombing motor vehicles used in Congressional Research Service ~ The Library of Congress