Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law, UCLA. Civil rights, police accountability, civil procedure. Author of Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable (2023). Learn more at: joannaschwartz.net
Joanna Schwartz
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Such a powerful set of observations by @jcschwartzprof.bsky.social, including that court opinions and public commentary re: suing government officials when they violate the Constitution often focus on the reasons not to sue, and not the benefits that civil rights litigation can bring.
The PA Supreme Court has decided, in large part based on a law student note authored in 2023, that our state constitution's protection against cruel punishments is based on a more robust understanding of cruelty than the US Constitution.
That note from Kevin Bendesky (HLS '23) is here:
NEW: the brilliant @sharonbrett.bsky.social looks at two Kansas cases that will determine whether the state constitution’s protections of bodily autonomy and dignity extend to transgender people.
Read her analysis in @statecourtreport.org.
statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...
Great quote from @marinklevy.bsky.social
"If you’re repeatedly engaging in alarm-sounding, the force of that alarm is going to be diminished over time,” she said. “But just because there have been several fires doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t sound the alarm for the next one.”
We are in the midst of an existential crisis of constitutionality and accountability, writes @law.ucla.edu's @jcschwartzprof.bsky.social. The ability to sue the government — and spotlighting all that such litigation can accomplish — is critically important.
After years of research, Daphna Renan & I are thrilled to announce preorders of SUPREMACY. Why is US democracy so broken? One reason is we've wrongly accepted that 9 justices have the final say over the Constitution. This book traces how that happened—& how we can reclaim power to govern ourselves.
Alicia Bannon
Alicia Bannon
Alexandra Lahav
Adam Bonin
Beginning in 2020, the Supreme Court sent two signals it was easing off its qualified immunity crusade: 1) its decision in Taylor v. Riojas, holding qi should be denied for obvious violations, even if no case on point; 2) slowing its shadow docket qi reversals.
Does Zorn mark the end of #2?
State Court Report
Joanna Schwartz
con.law
Incredibly excited and proud to share that last night, the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic’s groundbreaking litigation to end ATF’s discriminatory stash house stings—spanning four years and dozens of clients—was featured on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver!
Watch the segment here at 9:05 (1 of 4)
Niko Bowie
From two acclaimed legal scholars, a new history of the Supreme Court that overturns our most basic assumptions about its role in our democracy, showing how it seized the power it now wields., Suprema...
We are in the midst of an existential crisis of constitutionality and accountability, writes @law.ucla.edu's @jcschwartzprof.bsky.social. The ability to sue the government — and spotlighting all that such litigation can accomplish — is critically important.
By an apparent 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court grants qualified immunity to an officer who performed a painful "rear wristlock" on a nonviolent protester during a sit-in, summarily reversing the 2nd Circuit. All three liberals dissent—here's the gist of it: www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...
Very grateful to get to speak with @schwartzesque.bsky.social about judicial opinions that are increasingly sounding the alarm —
(🎁 link)
Alison Siegler
BREAKING: The PA Supreme Court holds that mandatory life without parole sentences for all "felony murder" convictions -- a sentence more than 1,000 people in PA are serving -- violates the state constitution's "cruel" punishment ban. This is GROUNDBREAKING: www.pacourts.us/assets/opini...
Two recent transgender rights cases may help answer this question.
statecourtreport.org
Mark Joseph Stern
Despite hurdles, civil rights litigation is a critical tool for people who have been harmed by the government and for those seeking long-lasting change.statecourtreport.org
Despite hurdles, civil rights litigation is a critical tool for people who have been harmed by the government and for those seeking long-lasting change.
aaay the keynote I gave last year for a Martin Luther King Day event at Villanova has now been published in the Villanova Law Review 🥹
www.villanovalawreview.com/article/1595...
you prolly haven't heard about Zorn v. Linton--an unsigned order the Supreme Court dropped the same morning they were indulging in mail ballot conspiracy theories
but the Court just quietly eroded the Fourth Amendment even more, and further empowered violent cops
ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/zorn-...
Here’s last night’s story about police stings, why they can seem like they’re creating more crime than they’re stopping, and why, legally speaking, you are not allowed to be afraid of a six foot tall Donald Duck. youtu.be/LqwJFuntco4
