Authorities have arrested three Birmingham college students and have charged them in the string of church fires in rural west Alabama. However, I see that the young men have been charged in federal court.

Somehow, the federal government is arguing here that the alleged actions by these students somehow had a bearing on interstate commerce. Why in the world are these not state charges?

This is yet another example of the continuing federalization of criminal law. The federal courts never were set up to be the criminal venues of choice, but that is what is happening today. This is onerous, to say the least.