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Public Law Litigation And Electoral Time, Zachary D. Clopton, Katherine Shaw Dec 2023

Public Law Litigation And Electoral Time, Zachary D. Clopton, Katherine Shaw

Articles

Public law litigation is often politics by other means. Yet scholars and practitioners have failed to appreciate how public law litigation intersects with an important aspect of politics—electoral time. This Essay identifies three temporal dimensions of public law litigation. First, the electoral time of government litigants—measured by the fixed terms of state and federal executive officials—may affect their conduct in litigation, such as when they engage in midnight litigation in the run-up to and aftermath of their election. Second, the electoral time of state courts—measured by the fixed terms of state judges—creates openings for strategic behavior among litigants (both public …


Prevention Of Judicial Corruption In Bangladesh: Cutting The Gordian Knot By Ensuring Accountability, S M Solaiman Dec 2023

Prevention Of Judicial Corruption In Bangladesh: Cutting The Gordian Knot By Ensuring Accountability, S M Solaiman

University of Pennsylvania Asian Law Review

Judicial corruption has eaten away at good governance in Bangladesh for decades, hindering its ambition to attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”) and taking advantage of the absence of any effective accountability mechanism. The magnitude of corruption is so intense that the successive Chief Justices, Attorneys-General, local, and international anti-corruption organizations, and even the Supreme Court of Bangladesh (“SCB”) itself in a judgment have forthrightly admitted the prevalence of judicial corruption. The malpractice does profoundly undermine the rule of law and infringe on the people’s right to fair trial. Corruption is on the rise in the country as …


Standing Back And Standing Down: Citizen Non-Cooperation And Police Non-Intervention As Causes Of Justice Failure And Crime, Paul H. Robinson, Jeffrey Seaman, Muhammad Sarahne Oct 2023

Standing Back And Standing Down: Citizen Non-Cooperation And Police Non-Intervention As Causes Of Justice Failure And Crime, Paul H. Robinson, Jeffrey Seaman, Muhammad Sarahne

Articles

The article discusses the failures of the American justice system to find and punish offenders for the majority of serious crimes. It highlight the low clearance and conviction rates for crimes such as murder, rape, and assault. It further argues that these failures of justice have practical consequences on crime rates and also disproportionately affect racial minorities and low-income communities.


"You’Re Fired": Criminal Use Of Presidential Removal Power, Claire Finkelstein, Richard Painter Aug 2023

"You’Re Fired": Criminal Use Of Presidential Removal Power, Claire Finkelstein, Richard Painter

Articles

This Article addresses a specific, but critically important aspect of presidential power: the intersection between the president’s power to remove executive branch officers and criminal laws that are generally applicable to both office-holders and non-office-holders alike. The question we ask is whether the president can obstruct justice by removing a presidential appointee who is investigating or prosecuting crimes of the president himself or of his associates. Can a president remove an appointee who refuses to work on behalf of the president’s re-election campaign even though it is a crime for anyone, including a president, to order or coerce a federal …


The Trouble With Time Served, Kimberly Ferzan Jul 2023

The Trouble With Time Served, Kimberly Ferzan

All Faculty Scholarship

Every jurisdiction in the United States gives criminal defendants “credit” against their sentence for the time they spend detained pretrial. In a world of mass incarceration and overcriminalization that disproportionately impacts people of color, this practice appears to be a welcome mechanism for mercy and justice. In fact, however, crediting detainees for time served is perverse. It harms the innocent. A defendant who is found not guilty, or whose case is dismissed, gets nothing. Crediting time served also allows the state to avoid internalizing the full costs of pretrial detention, thereby making overinclusive detention standards less expensive. Finally, crediting time …


Allowing The Courts To Step In Where Needed: Applying The Plra's 90-Day Limit On Preliminary Relief, Catherine T. Struve Apr 2023

Allowing The Courts To Step In Where Needed: Applying The Plra's 90-Day Limit On Preliminary Relief, Catherine T. Struve

All Faculty Scholarship

The Prison Litigation Reform Act responded to two major assertions—that prison and jail inmates were swamping the courts with frivolous lawsuits and that federal-court injunctions were imposing unwarranted requirements on prison and jail systems. The first assertion led to the PLRA provisions restricting prisoner lawsuits. The second assertion gave rise to the PLRA’s limits on injunctions “in any civil action with respect to prison conditions.” These limits (1) set requirements for the entry of any injunction, (2) provide for the termination of existing permanent injunctions, and (3) constrain the entry of preliminary injunctions. As to the first of these limits, …


Donating To The District Attorney, Michael Morse, Carissa Byrne Hessick, Nathan Pinnell Apr 2023

Donating To The District Attorney, Michael Morse, Carissa Byrne Hessick, Nathan Pinnell

Articles

The United States is the only country that elects its local prosecutors. In theory, these local elections could facilitate local control of criminal justice policy. But the academic literature assumes that, in practice, prosecutor elections fail to live up to that promise. This Article complicates that conventional wisdom with a new, national study of campaign contributions in prosecutor accountability by analyzing contributions to local candidates as well as their election results. It details the amount of money in local prosecutor elections, including from interest groups, and the relationship between candidate fundraising and success. The stark differences across the country underscore …


Algorithmic Grey Holes, Alicia G. Solow-Niederman Jan 2023

Algorithmic Grey Holes, Alicia G. Solow-Niederman

Journal of Law & Innovation

No abstract provided.


Understanding Criminal Justice Innovations, Meghan J. Ryan Jan 2023

Understanding Criminal Justice Innovations, Meghan J. Ryan

Journal of Law & Innovation

No abstract provided.


Emerging Technology’S Language Wars: Ai And Criminal Justice, Carla L. Reyes Jan 2023

Emerging Technology’S Language Wars: Ai And Criminal Justice, Carla L. Reyes

Journal of Law & Innovation

No abstract provided.


Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Removing Unhoused People By Proxy Of Mental Illness, Carl Wu Jan 2023

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Removing Unhoused People By Proxy Of Mental Illness, Carl Wu

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change

Across the United States, various legal mechanisms have subjected unhoused people to cruel practices that seek to remove them from public view. These practices have included laws that criminalize sleeping in public. Following a decades-long series of Supreme Court decisions, the Ninth Circuit recently struck down these “anti-homeless” laws under the Eighth Amendment’s ban on Cruel and Unusual Punishment and held that one’s status and unavoidable conduct resulting from that status could not be criminalized. Since 2022, a second wave of removal has emerged. California and New York City have both enacted initiatives, shrouded under the guise of a “compassionate” …


Anti-Carceral Human Rights Advocacy, Chi Adanna Mgbako, Nate Johnson, Vivienne Bang Brown, Megan Cheah, Kimya Zahedi Jan 2023

Anti-Carceral Human Rights Advocacy, Chi Adanna Mgbako, Nate Johnson, Vivienne Bang Brown, Megan Cheah, Kimya Zahedi

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change

The theory of carceral abolition entered the mainstream during the 2020 global protests for Black lives. Abolition calls for divestment from carceral institutions like police and prisons in favor of the expansion of social and economic programs that ensure public safety and nurture community well-being. Although there is little scholarship explicitly linking abolition to international human rights, there are scholars and advocates who implicitly echo abolitionist theories by critiquing the international human rights regime's overreliance on criminal law. These critics argue that relying on carceral institutions to address impunity for human rights abuses and promote gender justice does little to …


Let's Talk About Sex (Work): The Irony Of Partial Decriminalization Of Sex Work, Linda S. Anderson Jan 2023

Let's Talk About Sex (Work): The Irony Of Partial Decriminalization Of Sex Work, Linda S. Anderson

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change

No abstract provided.


Insanity-Plea Bargains: A Constitutionally And Practically Good Idea?, Sarah J. Goodman Jan 2023

Insanity-Plea Bargains: A Constitutionally And Practically Good Idea?, Sarah J. Goodman

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law

No abstract provided.


The Unfinished Revolution For Immigrant Civil Rights, Allison B. Tirres Jan 2023

The Unfinished Revolution For Immigrant Civil Rights, Allison B. Tirres

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law

No abstract provided.


The Conflict Among African American Penal Interests: Rethinking Racial Equity In Criminal Procedure, Trevor G. Gardner Jan 2023

The Conflict Among African American Penal Interests: Rethinking Racial Equity In Criminal Procedure, Trevor G. Gardner

University of Pennsylvania Law Review

No abstract provided.


Campus Policing And Police Reform, A.W. Geisel Jan 2023

Campus Policing And Police Reform, A.W. Geisel

University of Pennsylvania Law Review

No abstract provided.


Education For Learners With Disabilities As A Social Right, Dimitris Anastasiou, Ilias Bantekas Jan 2023

Education For Learners With Disabilities As A Social Right, Dimitris Anastasiou, Ilias Bantekas

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law

No abstract provided.


Challenging The Constitutionality Of Qualified Immunity, Taylor Kordsiemon Jan 2023

Challenging The Constitutionality Of Qualified Immunity, Taylor Kordsiemon

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law

No abstract provided.


Problematic Presumptions: Why The Current State Of Felon-In-Possession Law Risks Punishing The Innocent, Jordan Cohen-Kaplan Jan 2023

Problematic Presumptions: Why The Current State Of Felon-In-Possession Law Risks Punishing The Innocent, Jordan Cohen-Kaplan

University of Pennsylvania Law Review

No abstract provided.


Restoration, Retribution, And Sexual Assault: The Value Of Apologies, Kristen M. Marino Jan 2023

Restoration, Retribution, And Sexual Assault: The Value Of Apologies, Kristen M. Marino

University of Pennsylvania Law Review

Winner of THE 2023 HENRY C. LOUGHLIN PRIZE, to the student writing the best paper on legal ethics.


Transgender Constitutional Law, Katie Eyer Jan 2023

Transgender Constitutional Law, Katie Eyer

University of Pennsylvania Law Review

No abstract provided.


Exigencies, Not Exceptions: How To Return Warrant Exceptions To Their Roots, Michael Gentithes Jan 2023

Exigencies, Not Exceptions: How To Return Warrant Exceptions To Their Roots, Michael Gentithes

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law

No abstract provided.


Fugitives From Slavery And The Lost History Of The Fourth Amendment, Michael J. Zydney Mannheimer Jan 2023

Fugitives From Slavery And The Lost History Of The Fourth Amendment, Michael J. Zydney Mannheimer

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law

No abstract provided.


Racial Justice: The Failure Of The Warren Court's Criminal Procedure, George C. Thomas Iii Jan 2023

Racial Justice: The Failure Of The Warren Court's Criminal Procedure, George C. Thomas Iii

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law

No abstract provided.


Abstaining From Abstention: Why Younger Abstention Does Not Apply In 42 U.S.C. § 1983 Bail Litigation, Alezeh Rauf Jan 2023

Abstaining From Abstention: Why Younger Abstention Does Not Apply In 42 U.S.C. § 1983 Bail Litigation, Alezeh Rauf

University of Pennsylvania Law Review

No abstract provided.


(Re)Constructing An International Crime: Interpreting Sexual Victimhood In The Rohingya Genocide And Beyond, David Eichert Jan 2023

(Re)Constructing An International Crime: Interpreting Sexual Victimhood In The Rohingya Genocide And Beyond, David Eichert

University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law

This Article argues that legal actors use narratives of gendered violence to generate intelligible victimhood categories when investigating and prosecuting sexual harm. Building upon several critical legal traditions, I argue that lawyers working on issues of sexual violence are constantly engaged in a dual process of interpretation wherein they attempt to confirm (1) if a sexual crime has occurred, and (2) whether the crime is severe enough to deserve inclusion in justice efforts. Instead of understanding this process as a simple “investigation” into a pre-existing reality, I argue that legal actors constitute both the crime and the identities of the …