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Access to Justice
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May 23, 2024
High Court Sides With Gov't Over Repeat Offender Sentencing
A state drug conviction can trigger a mandatory 15-year sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act if it involved a drug on the federal schedules at the time of that conviction, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
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May 20, 2024
Lethal Injection 'Not Rocket Science,' Ga. Says As Trial Begins
As Georgia began a bench trial Monday against a death row inmate who is suing to be executed by firing squad, counsel for the state told a federal judge that she expected the inmate to have "a hard road to hoe" in disproving that the state's use of lethal injection is safe, effective and can be carried out with relative ease.
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May 17, 2024
NY Discovery Reform Feud Simmers Between DAs, Defenders
Four years after New York imposed new requirements on prosecutors to more promptly hand over evidence to defendants in criminal cases, data suggests that district attorneys’ offices are still struggling to comply. In the meantime, experts and advocates say many are quietly working to tweak the reforms or potentially scale them back.
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May 17, 2024
Reid Collins Helps Score Verdict For Teen In La. Policing Case
Nearly four years to the day when Louisiana teenager De’Shaun Johnson recorded his mother’s arrest in their Slidell driveway, attorneys with Reid Collins & Tsai LLP and the ACLU help convince a federal jury that a local sheriff’s deputy who threatened to Tase him had intentionally inflicted emotional distress.
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May 17, 2024
Inside The New Legal Push To End Calif.'s Death Penalty
In a first-of-its-kind case in the Golden State, the California Supreme Court is being asked to permanently dismantle the nation’s most populous death row on grounds that capital punishment has been administered in a racially discriminatory manner that disproportionately harms people of color.
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May 16, 2024
Lowenstein Sandler Pro Bono Head Leaves Legacy Of Service
As she winds down her tenure leading Lowenstein Sandler LLP's Center for Public Interest this month, Catherine Weiss is leaving behind a legacy as a fierce public advocate for immigrants and reproductive rights at a time when public interest law as a whole faces new challenges.
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May 13, 2024
Jackson, Sotomayor Would Have Taken Up Jury Pool Dispute
U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented Monday from the other justices' refusal to review a case in which a defendant and his counsel were excluded from attending initial juror qualification in his capital murder case, calling the circumstances "significant and certworthy."
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May 13, 2024
Justices Reject Incarcerated Man's Atty Abandonment Claim
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the case of a Texas man incarcerated on death row who says his court-appointed lawyer deprived him of a fair chance at challenging his conviction in a 2005 double homicide.
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May 09, 2024
Justices Uphold Civil Forfeiture Standards Amid Abuse Fears
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that people whose property is seized during criminal investigations of others aren't entitled to a quicker process to seek its return, even though a majority of justices expressed concerns about the constitutionality of civil forfeiture systems in general.
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May 03, 2024
Criminal Defense Attys Push Biden For Cannabis Clemency
On the heels of the U.S. Department of Justice's announcement that it would recommend relaxing federal restrictions on marijuana, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers has urged President Joe Biden to grant clemency and compassionate release to those with federal nonviolent marijuana convictions.
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May 03, 2024
Gen AI Shows Promise — And Peril — For Pro Se Litigants
Research on the capabilities of generative AI tools to help self-represented people has shown potential, but there is broad disagreement about how and when pro se litigants should be using them alone.
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May 03, 2024
AI Legal Tools Could Be Too Pricey For Those Most In Need
At a moment when generative AI is showing potential to help poor and underserved communities address legal issues they've historically had to face without representation, some experts warn that the cost of legal AI tools could put them out of reach for those who need them the most.
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May 03, 2024
How Courts Can Use Generative AI To Help Pro Se Litigants
While law firms and other private entities have so far been at the forefront of the legal industry's experimentation with generative artificial intelligence, experts say that court systems can play a role in deploying the technology to help self-represented litigants navigate court systems, resolve disputes remotely, and fill out required forms.
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May 03, 2024
Stanford Prof On Using Legal AI To Help Real People
Margaret Hagan, a Stanford Law School professor working on tech-driven solutions to problems in the justice system, said she has little doubt that artificial intelligence, and generative AI in particular, may be able to improve outcomes for ordinary people who interact with the courts.
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April 30, 2024
Justices Told Error Admission Merits Respect In Capital Case
Attorneys general from across the country implored the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to give the "utmost" deference to Oklahoma's confession that prosecutorial misconduct led to the wrongful conviction of a death row inmate and to overturn a state court ruling that rebuffed the admission and upheld the conviction.
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April 26, 2024
Mass. Justices Dash Deported Man's Hope For Remote Retrial
Massachusetts' high court ruled Friday that a man deported to the Dominican Republic cannot appear remotely for his retrial on charges that the justices previously vacated, citing court rules.
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April 24, 2024
Broken Promises Land Ga. Prison Officials In Contempt
A Georgia federal judge has slapped the state's prison officials with a contempt ruling imposing fines and appointing an independent monitor after finding the state Department of Corrections has for years flouted the terms of a settlement over its treatment of prisoners in its most punitive unit.
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April 23, 2024
NC Felony Voting Law Struck Down As Unconstitutional
A North Carolina federal judge has struck down the state's 147-year-old law making it a crime for convicted felons to vote, finding that the statute disproportionately targets Black voters and had been inconsistently enforced in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
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April 19, 2024
Wrongful Detention Suit Illustrates Pitfalls Of ICE Lockups
A Salvadoran woman's recent lawsuit alleging immigration authorities locked her up for months despite her protected status highlights how authorized immigrants, and sometimes even U.S. citizens, can wind up being wrongfully detained, and how, with no right to counsel in immigration proceedings, it can prove difficult to free them.
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April 19, 2024
Shook Hardy Mass Tort Pros Help Nix Pa. Murder Convictions
Deep experience dealing with expert testimony on complex scientific evidence and local knowledge of the Philadelphia suburbs made Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP partners John Lyons and David Haase a perfect fit for the team that recently helped vacate the decades-old convictions of three men accused of murdering a 70-year-old woman.
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April 19, 2024
How Attys Are Helping DC Residents Keep Family Homes
As homeownership rates among Black residents have fallen in the nation's capital, a new initiative aims to provide legal counsel to people living in homes that were passed down through the generations but don't have clear titles.
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April 18, 2024
NYC Bar Rips Hochul Plan To Divert Client Trust Interest Cash
The New York City Bar Association urged Gov. Kathy Hochul Thursday to reconsider her "eleventh-hour" renewed plan to divert $55 million in interest earned on lawyer trust accounts that typically goes toward legal aid for low-income New Yorkers, saying the "deeply troubling" move undermines the independence of the legal profession.
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April 18, 2024
BYU Law Students Develop 2 Access-To-Justice Tools
Brigham Young University Law School announced this week the development of two new legal technology solutions, one intended to make assigning community service more efficient and the other used to generate divorce documents.
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April 17, 2024
'It Has To End': Justices Mull Finality In 32-Year Murder Saga
In its second review of drug-fueled, baseball bat killings during the presidency of George H.W. Bush, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday pondered steering an Arizona man's capital punishment challenge toward conclusion, perhaps by handling evidentiary tasks normally left to lower courts.
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April 17, 2024
Sentencing Commission Limits Acquitted Conduct Sentencing
The U.S. Sentencing Commission on Wednesday voted to restrict the controversial practice of considering acquitted conduct in federal sentencing, and floated the possibility of applying the change retroactively.
Expert Analysis
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The Meaning Of 'Bail' Has Strayed Far From Its Legal Roots
As the pretrial system faces increasing scrutiny nationwide, states must recognize that imposing financial bail conditions harms communities, and that pretrial release practices must be realigned with foundational American legal principles — including the idea that money-based detention violates due process, says Matt Alsdorf at the Center for Effective Public Policy.
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Learning From San Francisco's Jury Pay Pilot Program
A pilot program in San Francisco shows that increasing compensation for lower-income jurors can foster more diverse juries and boost access to justice — and provides lessons for establishing similar projects in jurisdictions around the U.S., say San Francisco Treasurer José Cisneros, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and Public Defender Mano Raju.
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In Domestic Abuse Case, Justices Must Note Gun Law History
In deciding whether laws prohibiting domestic abusers from possessing firearms are unconstitutional in U.S. v. Rahimi, the U.S. Supreme Court should recognize that history is replete with relevant legal analogues restricting gun ownership, says Sarah Bennett at Sodoma Law.
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The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Espinosa On 'Lincoln Lawyer'
The murder trials in Netflix’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” illustrate the stark contrast between the ethical high ground that fosters and maintains the criminal justice system's integrity, and the ethical abyss that can undermine it, with an important reminder for all legal practitioners, say Judge Adam Espinosa and Andrew Howard at the Colorado 2nd Judicial District Court.
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Civil Legal Aid Cuts Are A Threat To Justice And Prosperity
The U.S. House of Representatives' budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 includes $71 million in cuts to civil legal aid, but the measure overlooks the economic benefits of access to justice and the many ways that opening the courts to more citizens can foster both basic human rights and economic growth, says David Carter at Calloquy.
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'True Threat' Ruling May Ensnare Kids' Online Speech
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Counterman v. Colorado decision correctly held that a showing of intent is required to prosecute someone for true threats, but the amorphous standard adopted by the court risks overcriminalizing children’s use of social media and text-based communications, say Adam Pollet at Eversheds Sutherland and Suzanne La Pierre at Human Rights for Kids.
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More States Should Join Effort To Close Legal Services Gap
Colorado is the most recent state to allow other types of legal providers, not just attorneys, to offer specific services in certain circumstances — and more states should rethink the century-old assumptions that shape our current regulatory rules, say Natalie Anne Knowlton and Janet Drobinske at the University of Denver.
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The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Elrod On 'Jury Duty'
Though the mockumentary series “Jury Duty” features purposely outrageous characters, it offers a solemn lesson about the simple but brilliant design of the right to trial by jury, with an unwitting protagonist who even John Adams may have welcomed as an impartial foreperson, says Fifth Circuit Judge Jennifer Elrod.
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A Judge's Pitch To Revive The Jury Trial
Ohio state Judge Pierre Bergeron explains how the decline of the jury trial threatens public confidence in the judiciary and even democracy as a whole, and he offers ideas to restore this sacred right.
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People In Prison Should Have Access To Digital Technology
There are a number of reasons why people who are incarcerated should have access to digital communication technology — from facilitating reentry to saving lives in a future pandemic — but they need the means and the necessary legal protections to do so, say NYU Law student Suchy Kahlon and First Amendment attorney Dan Novack.
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Mallory Gives Plaintiffs A Better Shot At Justice
Critics of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern claim it opens the door to litigation tourism, but the ruling simply gives plaintiffs more options — enabling them to seek justice against major corporations in the best possible court, say Rayna Kessler and Ethan Seidenberg at Robins Kaplan.
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5th Circ. Concurrence May Help Erode Qualified Immunity
A Fifth Circuit judge’s recent concurrence in Rogers v. Jarrett, highlighting new legal scholarship that questions the historical foundations of the qualified immunity doctrine, provides the basis for additional arguments for plaintiffs to secure legal recourse when government officials violate their rights, says Brian Collins at Van Naarden Spizer.
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How Public Defenders Can Use Social Media To Drive Change
In addition to their courtroom advocacy, indigent defenders should strategically use social media to develop a public voice that can counter police and prosecutor narratives, call attention to injustices and inspire policy shifts, say Russell Gold at the University of Alabama and Kay Levine at Emory University.
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Too Often, Use Of K-9 Units Is Cruel And Unusual Punishment
In too many instances, the use of police dogs as weapons violates the Eighth Amendment's protections against cruel and unusual punishment, but as a long line of cases demonstrates, courts have largely failed to acknowledge the unconstitutionality of K-9 unit attacks, says Patrick Buelna at Lawyers for the People.
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Justices' Habeas Ruling Further Saps Writ Of Its Strength
After the U.S. Supreme Court dealt its latest blow to the Great Writ in Jones v. Hendrix, holding that a provision called the “saving clause” cannot be used to file successive habeas petitions after a retroactive change in statutory law, Congress may need to amend the underlying law to ensure a more open habeas process, says Daniel Medwed at Northeastern University.