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Be Careful What You Wish For, Albert W. Alschuler Jan 2023

Be Careful What You Wish For, Albert W. Alschuler

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

[A]ny change in sentencing practices is likely to be an improvement. Judge Marvin Frankel in 1973 1

Fifty years ago, Marvin E. Frankel published an elegant, timely, and extraordinarily influential book, Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order. Four years after this book called for the appellate review of sentences and for greatly limiting the discretion of both sentencing judges and parole boards, California became the first state to limit sharply judicial sentencing discretion and abolish parole.2

Twenty other states joined the reform movement before Congress embraced the move from individualized to wholesale sentencing in 1984.3 The Sentencing Reform Act …


What Can We Learn From The Federal Approach To The Prosecution Of Juvenile Crime?, Emily Buss Jan 2022

What Can We Learn From The Federal Approach To The Prosecution Of Juvenile Crime?, Emily Buss

Articles

In a context of widespread concern over our bloated criminal justice system and growing awareness of the harm done to individuals and society by our excessive incarceration policies, any piece of the system that has remained infinitesimally small deserves some attention. In her article, The Federal Juvenile System, 1 Esther Hong highlights the success of the largely overlooked federal juvenile delinquency system in staying extremely small and suggests this system offers lessons for its bloated state and federal counterparts. Although I agree that the federal government’s prosecution of minors under the Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act (“FJDA”) offers some valuable lessons …


Kids Are Not So Different: The Path From Juvenile Exceptionalism To Prison Abolition, Emily Buss Jan 2022

Kids Are Not So Different: The Path From Juvenile Exceptionalism To Prison Abolition, Emily Buss

Articles

Inspired by the Supreme Court’s embrace of developmental science in a series of Eighth Amendment cases, “kids are different” has become the rallying cry, leading to dramatic reforms in our response to juvenile crime designed to eliminate the incarceration of children and support their successful transition to adulthood. The success of these reforms represents a promising start, but the “kids are different” approach is built upon two flaws in the Court’s developmental analysis that constrain the reach of its decisions and hide the true implications of a developmental approach. Both the text of the Court’s opinions and the developmental and …


Symposium Introduction: This Violent City? Urban Violence In Chicago And Beyond, Aziz Z. Huq, John Rappaport Jan 2022

Symposium Introduction: This Violent City? Urban Violence In Chicago And Beyond, Aziz Z. Huq, John Rappaport

Articles

To many, the city of Chicago conjures up a specter of unremitting urban violence. In 2014, the city was labeled the “murder capital” of the United States.1 The following year, a video of the police shooting Laquan McDonald became a cynosure of public concern.2 Commentators as disparate as Spike Lee and President Donald Trump agree: Chicago is uniquely bloody.3 Predictably, the empirical data about Chicago’s crime and policing trends belie the most dramatic of these claims.4 Yet if Chicago is not as violent as either Lee or Trump makes it out to be, the city’s experience …


Police Agencies On Facebook Overreport On Black Suspects, Ben Grunwald, Julian Nyarko, John Rappaport Jan 2022

Police Agencies On Facebook Overreport On Black Suspects, Ben Grunwald, Julian Nyarko, John Rappaport

Articles

A large and growing share of the American public turns to Facebook for news. On this platform, reports about crime increasingly come directly from law enforcement agencies, raising questions about content curation. We gathered all posts from almost 14,000 Facebook pages maintained by US law enforcement agencies, focusing on reporting about crime and race. We found that Facebook users are exposed to posts that overrepresent Black suspects by 25 percentage points relative to local arrest rates. This overexposure occurs across crime types and geographic regions and increases with the proportion of both Republican voters and non-Black residents. Widespread exposure to …


Captive Labor: Exploitation Of Incarcerated Workers, University Of Chicago Law School - Global Human Rights Clinic, Jennifer Turner, Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat, Nino Guruli, Claudia Flores, Sophie Desch, Katya El Tayeb, Leena Elsadek, Eric Singerman, Joseph Nunn, Monica Weisman, Genevieve Auld, Aaron Tucek, Nico Thompson-Lleras, Johnny Walker, Jennifer Turner Jan 2022

Captive Labor: Exploitation Of Incarcerated Workers, University Of Chicago Law School - Global Human Rights Clinic, Jennifer Turner, Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat, Nino Guruli, Claudia Flores, Sophie Desch, Katya El Tayeb, Leena Elsadek, Eric Singerman, Joseph Nunn, Monica Weisman, Genevieve Auld, Aaron Tucek, Nico Thompson-Lleras, Johnny Walker, Jennifer Turner

Global Human Rights Clinic

Our nation incarcerates over 1.2 million people in state and federal prisons, and two out of three of these incarcerated people are also workers. In most instances, the jobs these people in prison have look similar to those of millions of people working on the outside: They work as cooks, dishwashers, janitors, groundskeepers, barbers, painters, or plumbers; in laundries, kitchens, factories, and hospitals. They provide vital public services such as repairing roads, fighting wildfires, or clearing debris after hurricanes. They washed hospital laundry and worked in mortuary services at the height of the pandemic. They manufacture products like office furniture, …


Freedom Denied: How The Culture Of Detention Created A Federal Jailing Crisis, University Of Chicago Law School. Federal Criminal Justice Clinic Jan 2022

Freedom Denied: How The Culture Of Detention Created A Federal Jailing Crisis, University Of Chicago Law School. Federal Criminal Justice Clinic

Federal Criminal Justice Clinic

This Report reveals a fractured and freewheeling federal pretrial detention system that has strayed far from the norm of pretrial liberty. This Report is the first broad national investigation of federal pretrial detention, an often overlooked, yet highly consequential, stage of the federal criminal process. Our Clinic undertook an in-depth study of federal bond practices, in which courtwatchers gathered data from hundreds of pretrial hearings. Based on our empirical courtwatching data and interviews with nearly 50 stake-holders, we conclude that a “culture of detention” pervades the federal courts, with habit and courtroom custom overriding the
written law...” Our Report aims …


The Unexpected Costs Of Moral Minimization As An Interrogation Tactic, Margareth Etienne, Richard H. Mcadams Jan 2022

The Unexpected Costs Of Moral Minimization As An Interrogation Tactic, Margareth Etienne, Richard H. Mcadams

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.


The Corruption Of The Pardon Power, Albert Alschuler Jan 2022

The Corruption Of The Pardon Power, Albert Alschuler

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

This Article shows how the pardon power has been corrupted over the past forty years. It begins with a brief history of federal clemency. Throughout this history, presidents gave weight to the views of prosecutors and judges and afforded politicians considerable influence. Nevertheless, until well into the twentieth century, presidents liberally granted clemency to both prisoners and ex-offenders who, after completing their sentences, sought to erase their convictions.

In the early 1930s, as parole became a common means of releasing prisoners, the use of clemency to release prisoners declined. The abolition of parole in the 1980s, however, brought no revival …


Criminogenic Risks Of Interrogation, Richard H. Mcadams, Margareth Etienne Jan 2022

Criminogenic Risks Of Interrogation, Richard H. Mcadams, Margareth Etienne

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.


Data Federalism, Bridget Fahey Jan 2022

Data Federalism, Bridget Fahey

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Private markets for individual data have received significant and sustained attention in recent years. But data markets are not for the private sector alone. In the public sector, the federal government, states, and cities gather data no less intimate and on a scale no less profound. And our governments have realized what corporations have: It is often easier to obtain data about their constituents from one another than to collect it directly. As in the private sector, these exchanges have multiplied the data available to every level of government for a wide range of purposes, complicated data governance, and created …


Managing The Police Emergency, Adam Davidson Jan 2022

Managing The Police Emergency, Adam Davidson

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

There is a policing emergency in the United States. Police across the country cause massive, widespread, and unpredictable physical harm—killings, beatings; psychological harm—negative stress-related birth and educational outcomes, general worsened mental health; and sociological harm—advancing the racial, gender, and economic hierarchies that undermine our work towards an equal society. Even after the largest protest movement in U.S. history in summer 2020, the traditional political process has failed to make significant inroads against this emergency.

This Article begins to explore in depth the legal ramifications of recognizing the policing emergency. It suggests that among the most important ramifications is unlocking a …


Competing Algorithms For Law: Sentencing, Admissions, And Employment, Saul Levmore, Frank Fagan Jan 2021

Competing Algorithms For Law: Sentencing, Admissions, And Employment, Saul Levmore, Frank Fagan

Articles

No abstract provided.


The Performance Of Africa's International Courts: Using Litigation For Political, Legal, And Social Change, Tom Ginsburg Jan 2021

The Performance Of Africa's International Courts: Using Litigation For Political, Legal, And Social Change, Tom Ginsburg

Articles

No abstract provided.


Discovering Racial Discrimination By The Police, Alison Siegler Jan 2021

Discovering Racial Discrimination By The Police, Alison Siegler

Articles

No abstract provided.


The Future Of Felon Disenfranchisement Reform: Evidence From The Campaign To Restore Voting Rights In Florida, Michael Morse Jan 2021

The Future Of Felon Disenfranchisement Reform: Evidence From The Campaign To Restore Voting Rights In Florida, Michael Morse

Articles

No abstract provided.


Valuation Blunders In The Law Of Eminent Domain, Richard Epstein Jan 2021

Valuation Blunders In The Law Of Eminent Domain, Richard Epstein

Articles

No abstract provided.


Rethinking Prosecutorial Discretion In Immigration Enforcement, Nicole Hallett Jan 2021

Rethinking Prosecutorial Discretion In Immigration Enforcement, Nicole Hallett

Articles

Prosecutorial discretion in immigration enforcement stands at a crossroads. It was the centerpiece of Obama's immigration policy after efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform failed. Under the Trump administration, it was declared all but dead, replaced by an ethos of maximum enforcement. Biden has promised a return to the status quo ante, but the record of using prosecutorial discretion to accomplish humanitarian goals in immigration enforcement under Obama was, at best, mixed. Moreover, it is unclear whether Biden can depend on the availability of programs such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Obama's signature prosecutorial discretion program. Although the …


Police Deception In Interrogation As A Problem Of Procedural Legitimacy, Margareth Etienne, Richard Mcadams Jan 2021

Police Deception In Interrogation As A Problem Of Procedural Legitimacy, Margareth Etienne, Richard Mcadams

Articles

No abstract provided.


Global Impunity: How Police Laws & Policies In The World's Wealthiest Countries Fail International Human Rights Standards, Claudia Flores, Brian Citro, Nino Guruli, Mariana Olaizola, Chelsea Kehrer, Hannah Abrahams Jan 2021

Global Impunity: How Police Laws & Policies In The World's Wealthiest Countries Fail International Human Rights Standards, Claudia Flores, Brian Citro, Nino Guruli, Mariana Olaizola, Chelsea Kehrer, Hannah Abrahams

Global Human Rights Clinic

No abstract provided.


The Other American Law, Elizabeth Reese Jan 2021

The Other American Law, Elizabeth Reese

Articles

No abstract provided.


Global Impunity: How Police Laws & Policies In The World's Wealthiest Countries Fail International Human Rights Standards, Claudia Flores, Brian Citro, Nino Guruli, Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat, Chelsea Kehrer, Hannah S. Abrahams Jan 2021

Global Impunity: How Police Laws & Policies In The World's Wealthiest Countries Fail International Human Rights Standards, Claudia Flores, Brian Citro, Nino Guruli, Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat, Chelsea Kehrer, Hannah S. Abrahams

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.


The Discrete Charm Of Leveling Down, Aziz Z. Huq Jan 2021

The Discrete Charm Of Leveling Down, Aziz Z. Huq

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Starting from Justice Ginsburg’s 2017 opinion in Sessions v. Morales-Santana, this essay explores the choice between ‘leveling up’ and ‘leveling down’ as a response to an unlawful difference in the legal treatment of two distinct groups. That problem can arise in the Equal Protection, Free Speech, Free Exercise, and Dormant Commerce Clause contexts. My analysis starts by defining the idea of a ‘leveling down’ disposition in the context of a constitutional equality claim. After exploring analogies in other areas of constitutional law, I turn to two alternative ways of analyzing and solving the leveling-down disposition—one through the lens of Article …


Artificial Intelligence And The Rule Of Law, Aziz Z. Huq Jan 2021

Artificial Intelligence And The Rule Of Law, Aziz Z. Huq

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

This chapter examines an interaction between technological shocks and the “rule of law.” It does so by analyzing the implications of a class of loosely related computational technologies termed “machine learning” (ML) or, rather less precisely “artificial intelligence” (AI). These tools are presently employed in the pre-adjudicative phase of enforcing of the laws, for example facilitating the selection of targets for tax and regulatory investigations (Coglianese and Lehr, 2016). They are also increasingly used during adjudication, for example, to facilitate and guide determinations of individual violence risk during pretrial bail determinations (Huq, 2019). Predictions of a general displacement of human …


The Law Of Democratic Disqualification, Tom Ginsburg, Aziz Z. Huq, David Landau Jan 2021

The Law Of Democratic Disqualification, Tom Ginsburg, Aziz Z. Huq, David Landau

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Almost all constitutions, including our own, include one or several ways to disqualify specific individuals from political office. The U.S. Constitution, indeed, incorporates no less than four overlapping pathways toward disqualification. This power of retail disqualification stands at the heartland of the complex project of democratic rule. In practice, it works both an instrument for preserving democratic rule, and also a knife against it. This Article is the first to analyze systematically the complex positive and normative questions raised by disqualification. It offers both a positive account of the function that disqualification plays in constitutional ordering, and a normative account …


Equality's Understudies, Aziz Huq Jan 2020

Equality's Understudies, Aziz Huq

Articles

No abstract provided.


The Federal Judiciary's Role In Drug Law Reform In An Era Of Congressional Dysfunction, Erica Zunkel, Alison Siegler Jan 2020

The Federal Judiciary's Role In Drug Law Reform In An Era Of Congressional Dysfunction, Erica Zunkel, Alison Siegler

Articles

No abstract provided.


Constitutional Rights In The Machine Learning State, Aziz Huq Jan 2020

Constitutional Rights In The Machine Learning State, Aziz Huq

Articles

No abstract provided.


The Enduring Challenges For Habeas Corpus, Diane Wood Jan 2020

The Enduring Challenges For Habeas Corpus, Diane Wood

Articles

No abstract provided.


A Right To A Human Decision, Aziz Huq Jan 2020

A Right To A Human Decision, Aziz Huq

Articles

No abstract provided.