The Role of Courts in Addressing the Homelessness Crisis
Amid the record-breaking global temperatures this summer, the heat ticked ever higher in Sacramento between the District Attorney's office and City Hall. In a...
Blog Essays
The Speaker Pro Tempore’s Powers
For the first time ever, the House of Representatives has ousted the Speaker of the House on a motion to vacate. When the Office...
Reversing Remands: Procedural Uncertainty in a President’s State Criminal Trials
A couple of notable defendants are stuck in state court. State prosecutors have charged former President Donald Trump, his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows,...
Government by the People: Iowa’s Book-Ban Law and Direct Democracy
As the first day of classes neared, Bridgette Exman, assistant superintendent of the Mason City School District in north-central Iowa, found herself plugging a...
On Taboos, Morality, and Bluebook Citations
In many First Nations of what we now call Australia, people have and have had immense respect for the dead. This respect manifests linguistically...
How States Can Limit Gun Violence
In May 2022, a teenage shooter armed with an AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle entered a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and methodically killed...
A Convict in Chief?
Introduction The indictment, arrest, and arraignment of former President Donald Trump have given rise to a slew of opinions and questions about the wisdom...
Fifth Amendment Rights as Abortion Rights
A Black woman arrives at a hospital in South Carolina with a medical emergency. She is having labor pains, and the medical staff ask...
Religious Exemptions Are Becoming the Rule
Last week, Judge Reed O’Connor of the District Court for the Northern District of Texas struck down key provisions of the Affordable Care Act...
Reframing the Indigent Defense Crisis
Today marks the 60th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on the right to counsel. In Gideon, the Court found that “reason and reflection require us to recognize that in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided.” Despite Gideon’s recognition that lawyers in criminal courts “are necessities, not luxuries,” our failure to provide adequate representation to defendants in our criminal courts has been well documented.