Can holistic criminal justice survive algorithmic governance? Another new 📄 of mine, “Anti-Holistic Algorithms,” now out with the @vandylaw.bsky.social Vanderbilt Law Review, grapples with this question (ssrn: shorturl.at/eyZhu) abstract 👇 & short thread 1/6

Robynn Cox and I have a new paper! It's about the history of predictive algorithms in criminal justice, back in the 1920s-1950s. This paper is the result of five years of research and we're so happy to see it out. 🧵 1/

douglas adams was our most accurate futurist

Now forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review, my latest work rethinks how information should get shared in criminal cases, and why we need to look beyond the celebrated Brady doctrine if we are serious about improving the fairness of criminal discovery. 🧵🔽

Read the outstanding law review article by Chesa Boudin and @ericfish.bsky.social linked in the piece—GJ reform is an absolutely necessary bulwark against tyranny. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o...

Thrilled to share that 𝐺𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡 𝑏𝑦 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑑 has found a home with the Yale Law Journal. This piece examines parental liability regimes and parental rights, and how they are connected by a shared logic that harms children and families. Thank you to all those who read drafts and offered feedback!

Bob Dylan needs to do the right thing and give his Nobel Prize to Cormac Mccarthy

Fish & Keller on the Crime of Undocumented Presence Eric S. Fish (University of California, Davis - School of Law) & Doug Keller have posted Fabricating the Crime of Undocumented Presence on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In 2025, the Trump Administration’s Office of Legal Counsel declared that it is…

Just posted a draft law review article written with @dkeller.bsky.social. It concerns the Trump Administration's efforts to turn being an undocumented immigrant into a permanent criminal status. Available here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Kudos to @ucirvinelaw.bsky.social L.Rev. for doing this. And to @jessicasilbey.bsky.social

My latest article, Policing Children’s Data, is out today. It offers a comprehensive look at how law enforcement accesses children’s digital information and challenges the assumption that parental consent is enough to protect kids’ privacy. 📖 Read more: wustllawreview.org/2025/11/12/p...

time to update the ol’ jury nullification lecture

My new essay is in the University of Chicago Law Review Online: “Children and the Cars That Watch Them.” Autonomous vehicles promise freedom for kids, but also bring unprecedented surveillance. Parental consent isn’t enough; we need substantive limits. lawreview.uchicago.edu/online-archi...

Today, I spoke w/Chesa Boudin and @ericfish.bsky.social about a new law review article they've authored. They explore how Public Defenders can expand their power in and out of the courtroom so they can be a greater check on the other branches. open.spotify.com/episode/7Hbi...

Alas—he went without us! youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs

TX Gov. Abbott has been test running this for the past few years. To understand what this might look like nationwide, we need to look to “Operation Lone Star.” Sharing more below

Fresh on SSRN, my new article (with Chesa Boudin) brings defense lawyers into the criminal law separation-of-powers debate. It proposes understanding defense counsel as embodying a sui generis “defense power,” distinct from legislative, judicial, and executive power. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

this year’s NCAA tournament is a great illustration of how the free market locks in inequality

The concern over Hillary Clinton’s email account only gets funnier with time

This will be in tomorrow's Border Update but deserves its own separate post: Profiles of 15 young Venezuelan men shipped off to El Salvador's prisons last Saturday. None of them seem to be gang members—not at all. Post is here, with links to sources: adamisacson.com/who-did-the-...

Over at SCOTUS, Justices Sotomayor and Gorsuch encourage defense counsel to keep pushing the originalist argument that misdemeanor arrests require a warrant if the crime is not committed in an officer's presence. supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p... #N

I am a former incarcerated firefighter. I served in a California fire camp from 2009 to 2012. Misinformation is afire on the internet, so here are facts about the prison firefighter program, all in one place. A thread.

My problem with “criminal legal system” is that the system involves even less law than it does justice. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/the...

"Diversion" = "send a money order to the cops who cited you, via us (the DA)." Feels like: (1) not really "diversion." (2) maybe RICO-ish? (3) basically the plot of REBEL RIDGE (2024)

Chesa and I appeared on @pdefenselesspod.bsky.social to discuss our new article on pretrial criminal adjudication! SSRN link here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

It continues to amaze me that everyone has collectively decided Johnnie Cochran said “if the glove don’t fit, you must acquit.” The theme of his closing was “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” He never uttered the word “glove.”

Pardon expires at midnight. Hunter has four hours to get to the nearest national park and commit every crime.

There's a good argument to be made that mass deportations have been going on for more than 30 years. The first year that formal deportations rose above 50,000 in a single year was 1995. Within three years, deportations rose to 174,000. By 2003, they were above 211,000 a year.

Passing the bar at 17 is of course impressive, but I’m disturbed by the idea that this teenager is now going to be prosecuting and incarcerating people. Odd that no one in the article sees an issue with high school age prosecutors. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/u...

Just posted "Towards Pretrial Criminal Adjudication" (coauthored with Chesa Boudin, who is sadly not on Bluesky) to SSRN (papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....), forthcoming in the Boston College Law Review. In it we argue for more robust pretrial adjudication in the criminal justice system. (1/4)

My child is now in a phase where he goes around the house taking bookmarks out of books and handing them to me

Feels like the viruses are playing 4D chess…

Nominating Gaetz and Gabbard, and the apparent recess plan, is pretty much Trump picking up where he left off on January 6th. Push as far as you can and see what you can get away with. Push until they say no. Disastrous for our institutions, sure. But unsurprising from Trump.

The logistics of expelling so many people are mind boggling, even if they disregard the law. How do they even organize this many flights to places like Venezuela, Haiti, Ukraine?

Resisting Mass Immigrant Prosecutions is out in print: yalelawjournal.org/article/resi... Thanks to everyone who helped with it!

Just walked into a brewery called “hoi polloi” wearing a 3 piece suit. We’ll see how this goes…

Should be required reading for all public defenders!

My new article about mass immigrant prosecutions, forthcoming in the Yale Law Journal. It describes the history of Operation Streamline and Operation Lone Star, as well as efforts to resist them in San Diego and Texas. It also raises difficult ethical questions about lawyers’ role in such systems.

Every world-historic event will eventually be revealed to actually be about Harvard

Federal judges whine so much about the categorical approach. Never any recognition that factfinding on the prior is hard too. Or that our absurd guilty plea system does not meaningfully decide facts of past crimes. Maybe you should have to do a little work before giving 15 years for gun possession.

We are toads 🐸

Why are the dumbest episodes of Black Mirror the only ones that come true?

Hot off the presses! My new article in the Cornell Law Review: www.cornelllawreview.org/2023/11/03/t.... It concerns the uncertain constitutional status of criminal supervision (probation, parole, and supervised release), and when violation hearings trigger the right to a jury trial.

It has been the greatest honor of my career to write a Foreword for the Harv Law Rev. I am grateful to be able to tell this story and tell it from the heart in such a prominent forum. As always, I dream of a day when words can change minds and hearts—and worlds: harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/u...

One positive thing about bluesky so far is that almost no posts or replies have significant numbers of likes. So every contribution has to stand on its own.

The new world record marathon time is 2 hours and 35 seconds. Congratulations to Kelvin Kiptum, but my goodness that must be annoying. So close. theathletic.com/4941508/2023...