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...
Blog Essays
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.
NIMBYism at the Border
Asylum law has a major NIMBY problem, and the Biden Administration’s newly proposed asylum ban is poised to be an extreme manifestation of it....
The Amendment the Court Forgot in Twitter v. Taamneh
There was something conspicuously absent from the courtroom when the Supreme Court heard arguments in Twitter v. Taamneh last week. For decades now, the...
Notwithstanding the Right to Strike: A Canadian Province Defies the Constitution — And Workers Strike Back
The “Notwithstanding Clause,” the common name for section 33 of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms—the country’s constitutional bill of rights—authorizes time-bound legislation that...
The Paranoid Style in the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court’s conservative Justices unapologetically asserted their power this term. Over one week in June, they eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, expanded...
The Most Dangerous Moment of My Life: Reducing Police Killings During Mental Health Crises
“You need to get on the gurney now,” the police officer said, leaning toward me. This was a pivotal moment in my life —...