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Access to Justice
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November 06, 2024
Texas High Court Delays Rule Changes For Non-Atty Services
The Texas Supreme Court has delayed the effective date of rules for allowing non-attorneys to perform some legal services, saying it will take the extra time to "give due consideration to the comments received."
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November 05, 2024
Paxton Seeks Sanctions In Immigration Nonprofit Row
The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked an El Paso federal judge to sanction an immigrant rights nonprofit, claiming that it resisted a civil investigation by making misrepresentations to the court.
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November 01, 2024
#MeToo, Except For Migrants Fleeing Gender-Based Violence
Women fleeing gender-based violence face an uphill battle in a U.S. asylum system that has long been perceived as largely geared toward victims of state persecution and has yet to absorb the #MeToo movement's cultural shift.
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November 01, 2024
How Sidley Won Landmark Verdict In Solitary Confinement Case
After spending nine years alone in a concrete cell the size of a parking space, a former New York prisoner recently got the chance to tell his story to a jury and win a landmark civil rights verdict with help from a pro bono team of Sidley Austin LLP attorneys.
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October 31, 2024
Georgia Launches Committee To Take On 'Civil Justice Gap'
Georgia's chief justice has created a committee to identify ways to improve rural and low-income Georgia residents' access to civil legal services in an effort to close "the state's civil justice gap," the justice announced Thursday.
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October 29, 2024
Wash. Chief Justice Calls Diversity 'Critical' For Courts
Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven González reflected Tuesday night on what diversity in cultural perspectives can bring to classrooms and courtrooms alike, remarking that the dynamic on the high court has changed for the better during his 13 years on the bench as he's been joined by more colleagues of color.
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October 29, 2024
Philly Cops Lose Free Speech Suit Over Facebook Posts
A group of active and former Philadelphia Police Department officers disciplined for inflammatory Facebook activity have lost their First Amendment lawsuit against the city, with a Pennsylvania federal judge ruling Tuesday that the city had the right to terminate officers for making racist, violent and otherwise offensive posts.
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October 29, 2024
ICE Accused Of Withholding $300M In Nixed Immigrant Bonds
A New York resident hit the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with a proposed class action in New York federal court Tuesday, accusing the agency of systemically failing to return more than $300 million in bonds paid to secure the release of immigrants whose detention proceedings were later dismissed.
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October 25, 2024
How An Ex-US Atty's Kirkland Team Aids Trafficking Victims
After becoming a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in 2021, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox is now in the third year of an effort by firm attorneys to seal or expunge the criminal records of human trafficking survivors who have convictions or arrests connected to their victimization, with the initiative roughly doubling its work year to year.
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October 22, 2024
Suit Over Wash. Ban On 'DIY' Rape Evidence Kits Nixed
A Washington federal judge has tossed a challenge to a state ban on the sale of "DIY" DNA collection kits to sexual assault survivors, rejecting a kit developer's arguments that the ban infringes on its First Amendment rights.
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October 21, 2024
High Court Takes Case On Sentencing For Release Infractions
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to address a circuit split over what factors judges can consider when sentencing a person for violating conditions of supervised release, an issue estimated to affect thousands of defendants each year.
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October 18, 2024
How Texas Legislators Blocked 1st 'Shaken Baby' Execution
A bipartisan group of Lone Star State legislators stopped what would have been the nation's first execution for a conviction based on a "shaken baby syndrome" diagnosis by raising a novel separation-of-powers question about whether legislative subpoenas or death warrants carry more authority.
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October 18, 2024
'Chaos' At New Mich. Jail Is Forcing Longer Stays, Suit Says
A former detainee at Wayne County, Michigan's month-old jail alleged in a lawsuit that the center's "operational and administrative chaos," including staff shortages and computer system stoppages, has led to people getting lost in the system and being held for days after they were ordered released.
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October 18, 2024
How Denver Made Migrant Busing Work In Its Favor
City of Denver officials began having discussions in 2022 about accommodating a potential influx of immigrants, amid reports of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott busing them out of his border state to Democratic cities.
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October 18, 2024
Akin Helps Free Falsely Convicted Nicaraguan Missionaries
Thirteen people associated with the Texas-based evangelical missionary organization Mountain Gateway were released from a Nicaraguan prison in September following a monthslong pro bono effort by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP attorneys to secure their freedom.
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October 18, 2024
It's Not Too Late For Attys To Help Safeguard Election
With the presidential election mere weeks away, a small army of lawyers will deploy throughout the country in a nonpartisan effort to ensure the process is fair, smooth and safe.
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October 18, 2024
Narrow Ga. Ruling On Atty-Client Privilege Draws Concerns
A recent divided Georgia Supreme Court decision found that jailhouse calls between a man convicted of assault and his then-attorney weren't off-limits to prosecutors, drawing concerns from some legal experts that the narrow reading of attorney-client privilege sets a "dangerous" precedent.
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October 16, 2024
Pa. County Accused Of Widespread Juvenile Detention Abuse
A former inmate at a county juvenile detention center in Pennsylvania is suing the county and multiple state officials, saying he was sexually abused at the detention center, victim of an epidemic of child abuse there.
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October 15, 2024
Chicago Wants To Ditch $50M Wrongful Conviction Verdict
Chicago is asking a federal judge to overrule a jury that awarded $50 million to an innocent man wrongly convicted of first-degree murder, saying officers who allegedly coerced the man's confession are immune.
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October 15, 2024
Conn. AG Ends Challenge To Pay-To-Stay Prison Law
The state of Connecticut and three people formerly imprisoned have agreed to dismiss a proposed class action challenging a 1997 law that allowed the state to bill people in prison nearly $118,000 per year for their incarceration, a figure said to result in the highest pay-to-stay bills nationwide.
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October 11, 2024
Seattle Police Guild Tells Judge Shooting Didn't Warrant Firing
A Seattle police officers' union argued in Washington state court on Friday a former cop acted reasonably when she shot at a suspect fleeing in a stolen vehicle, defending an arbitrator's decision to downgrade her firing to a 60-day suspension amid a challenge by the city.
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October 09, 2024
Justices Fear Harm To Atty Reputations In Death Penalty Case
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas expressed concern during oral arguments this month about the reputational harm two former Oklahoma prosecutors were facing in light of the state's claim that they withheld evidence and presented false testimony to secure the conviction of a prisoner on death row — allegations over which the justices seem likely to order further proceedings.
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October 09, 2024
DC Judge Sanctions DOD For Destroying Gitmo Tapes
A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday sanctioned the Pentagon for destroying dozens of video recordings of the torture of a Palestinian man imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay, barring the Pentagon from rebutting the man's testimony of what he endured.
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October 08, 2024
Dem Rep. Reintroduces Death Row Appeal Bill
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., has announced that he is reintroducing a bill that would ensure inmates on death row would have the opportunity to present new evidence pointing to their innocence.
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October 08, 2024
Ex-Cop Guilty Of Excessive Force After Officers Testify
A federal jury in Indianapolis has convicted a former New Castle, Indiana, police officer of excessive force and witness tampering after a series of incidents in which prosecutors said he assaulted a suspect and two imprisoned persons, then lied to a state police detective.
The Push To End 'Prison Gerrymandering' Gains Momentum
Opponents of so-called prison gerrymandering are having success fighting to end the practice, which they say reduces the political representation of minority communities in favor of rural, white areas, but obstacles like poor data and political opposition remain.
Behind High Court's Rare Review Of 2nd Texas Capital Case
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court took up a case over a Texas inmate's right to new DNA testing his attorneys believe could save him from execution. It’s a rare move for the justices, who in recent years have pointedly stayed out of capital appeals.
Florida Legal Aid Groups On Front Lines Of Hurricane Relief
Amid the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton in recent weeks, legal aid workers in the Sunshine State are on the ground to assist vulnerable Floridians and ensure they get a fair shake.
A Jury Found Them Not Guilty. They're Still Serving Life
Despite a federal jury acquitting Terence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne for the murder of a Virginia police officer nearly 25 years ago, the two men remain in prison for the crime. But with new evidence and a new lawyer, they're hoping to reverse the fraught, state-level guilty pleas that a federal judge later relied on to sentence them both to life behind bars.
Expert Analysis
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Courts Must Reduce Impact Of Parental Incarceration On Kids
Research consistently shows that when a parent is incarcerated, the children left behind suffer myriad negative and long-lasting consequences, and courts must do more to guard against causing these additional harms, say Fulton County, Georgia, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney and Yolanda Lewis at the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute.
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How Attorneys Can Support The ERA's Implementation
After the American Bar Association’s recent resolution affirming that the Equal Rights Amendment has met the constitutional standard for ratification, attorneys should consider ways to support the ERA’s implementation to ensure that gender equality is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, says Kate Kelly at the Center for American Progress.
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Protecting Survivor Privacy In High-Profile Sex Assault Cases
Multiple civil lawsuits filed against Sean "Diddy" Combs, with claims ranging from sexual assault and trafficking to violent physical beatings, provide important lessons for attorneys to take proactive measures to protect the survivor's anonymity and privacy, says Andrea Lewis at Searcy Denney.
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20 Years On, It's Time To Fix The Crime Victims' Rights Act
The Crime Victims’ Rights Act, enacted 20 years ago this month, was a good start toward helping survivors of crime, but it has fallen short in several key ways, and amendments are needed to ensure the legal system empowers and protects victims, says Bridgette Stumpf at Network for Victim Recovery.
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Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan
Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.
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DC Circ. Seizure Ruling Deepens 4th Amendment Circuit Split
The D.C. Circuit’s recent Asinor v. District of Columbia decision, holding that the government’s continued possession of seized property must be reasonable, furthers a split among circuit courts and portends how the text, history and tradition method might influence Fourth Amendment cases, say Ty Howard and Wayne Beckermann at Bradley Arant.
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How To Use Geofence Warrants In A Constitutional Manner
Ensuring that court-issued geofence search warrants minimize infringements on innocent individuals' rights, and uphold the principles underlying the Fourth Amendment, involves striking a balance that includes treating digital information as property, says Robert Frommer at Institute for Justice.
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2 High Court Rulings Boost Protections Against Gov't Reprisal
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Gonzalez v. Trevino and Chiaverini v. City of Napoleon significantly strengthen legal protections against retaliatory arrests and malicious prosecution, and establish clear precedents that promote accountability in law enforcement, say Corey Stoughton and Amanda Miner at Selendy Gay.
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High Court Ruling Leaves Chance For Civil Forfeiture Reform
Though advocates for civil forfeiture reform did not prevail in Culley v. Marshall last month, concerns voiced by a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court justices potentially leave the door open to consider stricter limits in future cases, say attorneys at Dykema.
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NY Chief Judge Spotlights Need To Strengthen Public Defense
In a recent concurrence in People v. Watkins, New York Chief Judge Rowan Wilson called attention to the necessity for greater investment in public defense services, highlighting not only the urgency of current crises, but the need to embrace a more ambitious vision of equal right to counsel, says Corey Stoughton at Selendy Gay.
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Justices' 1st Post-Bruen Gun Ruling Provides Little Guidance
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Rahimi that domestic abusers can be prohibited from owning guns — its first chance to clarify the new gun rights test it established in its 2022 Bruen decision — will not do much to help lower courts because it didn’t resolve one of the biggest open issues involving the Second Amendment, says Michael McCarthy at Kendall Brill.
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DOJ Must Be Transparent With Its Death-In-Custody Data
In two lawsuits, the Justice Department is fighting news organizations’ efforts to disclose the data it collects about deaths in custody — a counterproductive position against transparency at odds with officials' statements recognizing that such data is necessary to save lives, says David Janovsky at the Project on Government Oversight.
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Justices' Repeat Offender Ruling Eases Prosecutorial Hurdle
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week in Brown v. U.S., clarifying which drug law applies to sentencing a repeat offender in a federal firearms case, allows courts to rely on outdated drug schedules to impose increased sentences, thus removing a significant hurdle for prosecutors, says attorney Molly Parmer.
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Congress Must Abolish Acquitted Conduct Sentencing
The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recent amendment, limiting judges’ ability to consider acquitted conduct at sentencing, is a necessary step toward ensuring fairer trials and protecting individual rights, but ultimately, Congress must end the practice altogether, say Marc Levin at the Council on Criminal Justice and Martín Sabelli at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
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Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys
As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.