The DOJ is taking on protest-related cases that would normally be handled at the state level

Is the Justice Department overreaching in some cases involving protesters who allegedly broke the law during nationwide protests against police brutality? Some legal experts think so, Politico reports.

The federal government is prosecuting more than 70 protesters for anything from vandalism to murder. Some of these cases are undoubtedly serious, but others apparently wouldn't normally be taken up by federal authorities like the FBI, including two incidents where individuals face felony charges for breaking police car windows. "I think most of these crimes, even these sort of local crimes, even local riots, the Constitution leaves to state jurisdiction," said Ilya Somin, a professor at George Mason University's Scalia Law School. "State and local authorities are in a better position to handle this and they appear to be handling it."

Another example of federal authorities perhaps extending its authority too far involves a man charged with possession of a Molotov cocktail. Because he used an imported bottle of tequila to make the device, the case apparently falls under the federal government's regulation of foreign commerce. Somin believes President Trump and Attorney General William Barr want to invoke federal power in these cases as a way to "trumpet themselves as law and order people" even if "there are people in the state that are capable of prosecuting." Read more at Politico.

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