Access to Justice

  • November 01, 2024

    Behind High Court's Rare Review Of 2nd Texas Capital Case

    Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court took up a case over a Texas inmate's right to new DNA testing his attorneys believe could save him from execution. It’s a rare move for the justices, who in recent years have pointedly stayed out of capital appeals.

  • November 01, 2024

    How Sidley Won Landmark Verdict In Solitary Confinement Case

    After spending nine years alone in a concrete cell the size of a parking space, a former New York prisoner recently got the chance to tell his story to a jury and win a landmark civil rights verdict with help from a pro bono team of Sidley Austin LLP attorneys.

  • October 31, 2024

    Georgia Launches Committee To Take On 'Civil Justice Gap'

    Georgia's chief justice has created a committee to identify ways to improve rural and low-income Georgia residents' access to civil legal services in an effort to close "the state's civil justice gap," the justice announced Thursday.

  • October 29, 2024

    Wash. Chief Justice Calls Diversity 'Critical' For Courts

    Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven González reflected Tuesday night on what diversity in cultural perspectives can bring to classrooms and courtrooms alike, remarking that the dynamic on the high court has changed for the better during his 13 years on the bench as he's been joined by more colleagues of color.

  • October 29, 2024

    Philly Cops Lose Free Speech Suit Over Facebook Posts

    A group of active and former Philadelphia Police Department officers disciplined for inflammatory Facebook activity have lost their First Amendment lawsuit against the city, with a Pennsylvania federal judge ruling Tuesday that the city had the right to terminate officers for making racist, violent and otherwise offensive posts.

  • October 29, 2024

    ICE Accused Of Withholding $300M In Nixed Immigrant Bonds

    A New York resident hit the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with a proposed class action in New York federal court Tuesday, accusing the agency of systemically failing to return more than $300 million in bonds paid to secure the release of immigrants whose detention proceedings were later dismissed.

  • October 25, 2024

    How An Ex-US Atty's Kirkland Team Aids Trafficking Victims

    After becoming a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in 2021, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox is now in the third year of an effort by firm attorneys to seal or expunge the criminal records of human trafficking survivors who have convictions or arrests connected to their victimization, with the initiative roughly doubling its work year to year.

  • October 22, 2024

    Suit Over Wash. Ban On 'DIY' Rape Evidence Kits Nixed

    A Washington federal judge has tossed a challenge to a state ban on the sale of "DIY" DNA collection kits to sexual assault survivors, rejecting a kit developer's arguments that the ban infringes on its First Amendment rights.

  • October 21, 2024

    High Court Takes Case On Sentencing For Release Infractions

    The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to address a circuit split over what factors judges can consider when sentencing a person for violating conditions of supervised release, an issue estimated to affect thousands of defendants each year.

  • October 18, 2024

    How Texas Legislators Blocked 1st 'Shaken Baby' Execution

    A bipartisan group of Lone Star State legislators stopped what would have been the nation's first execution for a conviction based on a "shaken baby syndrome" diagnosis by raising a novel separation-of-powers question about whether legislative subpoenas or death warrants carry more authority.

  • October 18, 2024

    'Chaos' At New Mich. Jail Is Forcing Longer Stays, Suit Says

    A former detainee at Wayne County, Michigan's month-old jail alleged in a lawsuit that the center's "operational and administrative chaos," including staff shortages and computer system stoppages, has led to people getting lost in the system and being held for days after they were ordered released.

  • October 18, 2024

    How Denver Made Migrant Busing Work In Its Favor

    City of Denver officials began having discussions in 2022 about accommodating a potential influx of immigrants, amid reports of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott busing them out of his border state to Democratic cities.

  • October 18, 2024

    Akin Helps Free Falsely Convicted Nicaraguan Missionaries

    Thirteen people associated with the Texas-based evangelical missionary organization Mountain Gateway were released from a Nicaraguan prison in September following a monthslong pro bono effort by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP attorneys to secure their freedom.

  • October 18, 2024

    It's Not Too Late For Attys To Help Safeguard Election

    With the presidential election mere weeks away, a small army of lawyers will deploy throughout the country in a nonpartisan effort to ensure the process is fair, smooth and safe.

  • October 18, 2024

    Narrow Ga. Ruling On Atty-Client Privilege Draws Concerns

    A recent divided Georgia Supreme Court decision found that jailhouse calls between a man convicted of assault and his then-attorney weren't off-limits to prosecutors, drawing concerns from some legal experts that the narrow reading of attorney-client privilege sets a "dangerous" precedent.

  • October 18, 2024

    Florida Legal Aid Groups On Front Lines Of Hurricane Relief

    Amid the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton in recent weeks, legal aid workers in the Sunshine State are on the ground to assist vulnerable Floridians and ensure they get a fair shake.

  • October 16, 2024

    Pa. County Accused Of Widespread Juvenile Detention Abuse

    A former inmate at a county juvenile detention center in Pennsylvania is suing the county and multiple state officials, saying he was sexually abused at the detention center, victim of an epidemic of child abuse there.

  • October 15, 2024

    Chicago Wants To Ditch $50M Wrongful Conviction Verdict

    Chicago is asking a federal judge to overrule a jury that awarded $50 million to an innocent man wrongly convicted of first-degree murder, saying officers who allegedly coerced the man's confession are immune.

  • October 15, 2024

    Conn. AG Ends Challenge To Pay-To-Stay Prison Law

    The state of Connecticut and three people formerly imprisoned have agreed to dismiss a proposed class action challenging a 1997 law that allowed the state to bill people in prison nearly $118,000 per year for their incarceration, a figure said to result in the highest pay-to-stay bills nationwide.

  • October 11, 2024

    Seattle Police Guild Tells Judge Shooting Didn't Warrant Firing

    A Seattle police officers' union argued in Washington state court on Friday a former cop acted reasonably when she shot at a suspect fleeing in a stolen vehicle, defending an arbitrator's decision to downgrade her firing to a 60-day suspension amid a challenge by the city.

  • October 09, 2024

    Justices Fear Harm To Atty Reputations In Death Penalty Case

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas expressed concern during oral arguments this month about the reputational harm two former Oklahoma prosecutors were facing in light of the state's claim that they withheld evidence and presented false testimony to secure the conviction of a prisoner on death row — allegations over which the justices seem likely to order further proceedings.

  • October 09, 2024

    DC Judge Sanctions DOD For Destroying Gitmo Tapes

    A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday sanctioned the Pentagon for destroying dozens of video recordings of the torture of a Palestinian man imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay, barring the Pentagon from rebutting the man's testimony of what he endured.

  • October 08, 2024

    Dem Rep. Reintroduces Death Row Appeal Bill

    U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., has announced that he is reintroducing a bill that would ensure inmates on death row would have the opportunity to present new evidence pointing to their innocence.

  • October 08, 2024

    Ex-Cop Guilty Of Excessive Force After Officers Testify

    A federal jury in Indianapolis has convicted a former New Castle, Indiana, police officer of excessive force and witness tampering after a series of incidents in which prosecutors said he assaulted a suspect and two imprisoned persons, then lied to a state police detective.

  • October 08, 2024

    Justices Divided Over 'Prevailing Party' Status For Atty Fees

    The U.S. Supreme Court appeared noncommital on Tuesday while grappling with what constitutes a "prevailing party" for the purpose of awarding attorney fees in civil rights lawsuits, a question that has broad implications for both government agencies and legal advocacy groups.

Expert Analysis

  • 5th Circ. Concurrence May Help Erode Qualified Immunity

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    A Fifth Circuit judge’s recent concurrence in Rogers v. Jarrett, highlighting new legal scholarship that questions the historical foundations of the qualified immunity doctrine, provides the basis for additional arguments for plaintiffs to secure legal recourse when government officials violate their rights, says Brian Collins at Van Naarden Spizer.

  • How Public Defenders Can Use Social Media To Drive Change

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    In addition to their courtroom advocacy, indigent defenders should strategically use social media to develop a public voice that can counter police and prosecutor narratives, call attention to injustices and inspire policy shifts, say Russell Gold at the University of Alabama and Kay Levine at Emory University.

  • Too Often, Use Of K-9 Units Is Cruel And Unusual Punishment

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    In too many instances, the use of police dogs as weapons violates the Eighth Amendment's protections against cruel and unusual punishment, but as a long line of cases demonstrates, courts have largely failed to acknowledge the unconstitutionality of K-9 unit attacks, says Patrick Buelna at Lawyers for the People.

  • Justices' Habeas Ruling Further Saps Writ Of Its Strength

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court dealt its latest blow to the Great Writ in Jones v. Hendrix, holding that a provision called the “saving clause” cannot be used to file successive habeas petitions after a retroactive change in statutory law, Congress may need to amend the underlying law to ensure a more open habeas process, says Daniel Medwed at Northeastern University.

  • Service Members Should Have Right To Unanimous Verdicts

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    As several recent cases exemplify, service members can be convicted of crimes by nonunanimous juries in military courts and cannot appeal such verdicts, despite Supreme Court precedent from recent years — a glaring constitutional error that Congress should rectify expeditiously, says Kevin Carroll at Hughes Hubbard.

  • Jail-Based Polling Places Are Key To Expanding Ballot Access

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    As the 2024 elections begin to take shape, jurisdictions should consider jail-based polling locations to ease voting obstacles faced by incarcerated people, say former advocacy director Naila Awan and communications strategist Wanda Bertram at Prison Policy Initiative.

  • A New HOPE For Expunging State-Level Cannabis Convictions

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    As states across the U.S. legalize cannabis, individuals with related convictions face hurdles to expunging their records due to outdated record-keeping systems — but the recently introduced HOPE Act would remedy this by providing grant funding to state and local governments, says Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio.

  • Immigration Board Must Mend Choice Of Law Post-Garcia

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    The Board of Immigration Appeals must revisit the choice of law standard recently established in Matter of Garcia, which fails to establish predictability, upsets the settled expectations of parties' remanded cases and unfairly tips the scale in the government's favor, says Monica Mananzan at the Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition.

  • Inside Immigration Court: The Pros, Cons Of Remote Hearings

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    Technology introduced during the pandemic has improved the quality and efficiency of virtual immigration court hearings, but concerns still linger over the court system's ability to provide full and complete simultaneous interpretation in these hearings, as well as its effect on due process, says Immigration Judge Mimi Tsankov.

  • How Attorneys Can Help Combat Anti-Asian Hate

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    Amid an exponential increase in violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, unique obstacles stand in the way of accountability and justice — but lawyers can effect powerful change by raising awareness, offering legal representation, advocating for victims’ rights and more, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

  • Well-Equipped Public Defenders Can Help Reduce Recidivism

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    Public defenders are uniquely positioned to connect clients with essential services that are proven to address the root drivers of crime, thus reducing recidivism and promoting public safety — but they need adequate resources to bring about this change, says Emily Galvin-Almanza at Partners for Justice.

  • Inside Immigration Court: Making The Case For Bond Release

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    Immigration Judge Samuel Cole offers a guide to help attorneys practicing in immigration court — against a backdrop of high stakes and fast-moving dockets — better prepare for bond hearings, so proceedings run more smoothly and with less delay.

  • LA County Should Loosen Strict Reentry Program Criteria

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    Los Angeles County’s recent fair chance ordinance proposal is an important step toward reducing recidivism, but the county should also make its reentry programs available to all formerly incarcerated individuals and focus on prerelease job training, say Sophia Lowe, Eleanor Pearson and Samuel Mistrano at USC.

  • Why Trump Sexual Abuse Verdict May Be Hard To Replicate

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    Survivors of sexual assault may be emboldened to file suit after writer E. Jean Carroll’s trial victory against former President Donald Trump, but before assigning too much significance to the verdict, it’s worth noting that the case’s unique constellation of factors may make it the exception rather than the rule, says Jessica Roth at Cardozo School of Law.

  • New Ideas For Using Litigation Finance To Close Justice Gap

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    Bob Koneck at Woodsford outlines new ways in which the growing litigation finance industry could work with foundations, law firms and schools to address the urgent access to justice crisis.

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