It took just 15 years to get from Citizens United to this

Must-read: ‘Letter to Columbia’ written from political prisoner Mahmoud Khalil. www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2025...

It took me 28 years to go from carceral feminist to abolitionist. @saaarah.bsky.social tells that story here.

Governor Kathy Hochul and prosecutors say they want to "streamline" reforms passed five years ago to ensure fair and speedy criminal court proceedings. A close reading of their proposals reveals their effort to gut the legislation known as "Kalief's Law." hellgatenyc.com/discovery-re...

“Prisons were transformed into a wedge that encouraged white guards to see their class mobility as tied to the criminalization of the racialized poor.” —Orisanmi Burton, author of ‘Tip of the Spear’ ( @ucpress.bsky.social ), on the deadly NY prison guard strike.

Folks asking for sources other than NY post, Inside Higher Ed article was published yesterday, link below.

Hochul’s move here is profoundly racist and dehumanizing. Defining Palestinian studies as fundamentally antisemitic means defining Palestinians as something to be erased. It is genocidal. This is also an unacceptable attack on academic freedom. The governor should have no say in faculty hiring.

We urge university leaders to respond confidently, with law and moral principle on your side, and not to sacrifice essential and legally defensible DEI initiatives that help universities fulfill their most basic mission to pursue truth and knowledge for the common good. app.box.com/s/2me4mszr6p...

LPE friends, big announcement! 🔥🔥 This Sept, the first annual LPE conference, launching a new LPE Association! Been working hard on this, with an amazing crowd of LPE fac and groups - more here: law.richmond.edu/faculty/Inau....

Can never forget how much of what we’re going to see in the next four years was road-tested and normalized by the last four years.

a fantastic piece by @jpygold.bsky.social about how powerful universities like Harvard are laundering Republicans’ bad-faith talking points to look like good-faith concerns and harming their own mission in the process t.co/0alYIPD5Zb

My latest is out in BU Law Rev. It argues that the tension inherent in counseling clients as a defender is a testament to the power of the counseling space and urges ways to turn that contradiction into a strength. Check it out and the thoughtful response from @ahoagfordjour.bsky.social

Check out my response, "Client Counseling in Post-Conviction," in @bulaw.bsky.social's Law Review, Vol. 104, engaging with @apetrigh.bsky.social's article "Counseling Oppression." www.bu.edu/bulawreview/...

Really grateful to the folks at inquest for letting me share some thoughts I've been noodling over about client counseling.

How might a defense lawyer counsel her client not just about an individual criminal case, but about the broader oppression of our system of mass incarceration? Former public defender @apetrigh.bsky.social of @bulaw.bsky.social offers insights. https://inquest.org/decarceral-counseling/

A enduring myth about pretrial detention is that it’s necessary to ensure a person’s return to court or prevent harm to the community. But as longtime public defender Justine Olderman shows, the real purpose of jailing people ahead of trial is punishment. As such, pretrial detention must be ended.

Universal Public Defense, forthcoming HarvardCRCL, vol. 60 (2025). It asks how mandated UPD, where everyone is req’d to receive a state funded defender regardless of income, might change the criminal adjudication system. Comments & feedback welcome: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Always read Daniel Harawa, *especially* on the Second Amendment. www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/betwee...

Hey, fellow CrimProfs! Settling in? In case you are brand new, please @ me to let me know if you want me to add you to the CrimProf starter pack. You can find your colleagues, they can find you, and everyone on here can find us more easily, together! go.bsky.app/UGVvbRP

The bill that could allow Trump to kill non-profits is back. theintercept.com/2024/11/15/n...

Me every morning: People are inherently good. We will find community and grow and be strong together. There's no need to be dramatic or despair. Me every evening: youtu.be/bHuAzN3_yrQ?...

As these grim announcements keep coming in, I'd like to bring over some wisdom by @atlsolfund.bsky.social from the other place

Angelo Petrigh & @elizaorlins.bsky.social are spot on in this piece about the pressures on NY judges: releasing someone pretrial could get you attacked on the front page of the NY Post or reassigned to a worse post, but there’s no consequences for wrongly jailing someone pretrial.