Virginia legislation could release dangerous murderers and tie the hands of the parole board

by · Dec 11, 2025 2:09 pm

In the wake of the November election, with the governor’s veto threat removed, the Virginia legislature is proceeding to pass California-style legislation that takes soft-on-crime to new levels. Hans Bader has this post with the above title at Liberty Unyielding.

In a nutshell, the bill would make the crime that a prison inmate committed irrelevant to the parole decision for those inmates who were under 18 at the time they committed major felonies. Continue reading . . .

SCOTUS Monday

by · Dec 8, 2025 10:17 am

Today’s big SCOTUS news is the oral argument over whether Congress can prevent the President from firing officials of independent agencies. This has been a big debate in constitutional law going back at least as far as the administration of President Andrew Johnson (1865-1869). Update: Most observers of the argument expect the Administration position to prevail. See, e.g., this article in the WSJ.

There is far less action in criminal law. The court’s orders list today took no new cases, criminal or civil. Last Friday, the court issued a short list taking up four cases. The most newsworthy of these is the civil case on how broadly to construe the citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” In particular, which children born to noncitizen parents are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States? Continue reading . . .

Women Risk Their Lives on Public Transit in Blue Cities

by · Nov 21, 2025 12:15 pm

Another habitual felon has targeted a woman alone on a commuter train.  This time it was last Monday in Chicago at 9:30 p.m. when Lawrence Reed, who has at least 13 priors, poured gasoline on a young woman riding alone on a CTA Blue Line train and set her on fire.  Alexandra Koch of Fox News reports that Reed had recently been released from jail after being charged with aggravated battery for attacking a woman at a psychiatric hospital last August. Reed apparently selected the young woman at random while she was sitting on the train looking at her phone.  Totally unprovoked he came up from behind and doused her with the gas. Before he could light the gas, the woman ran to the back of the train with Reed following. He then lit her on fire and as she rolled on the floor while he watched.  When the train stopped, the woman, who was still on fire, managed to exit before collapsing on the platform.

Continue reading . . .

Supreme Court November Arguments

by · Nov 3, 2025 11:32 am

The U.S. Supreme Court’s November argument calendar begins today. It is Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week and next except for Veterans’ Day, next Tuesday.

Here are the criminal and law-enforcement-related civil cases on the docket:

Today, Nov. 3: Rico v. United States.  Whether the fugitive-tolling doctrine applies in the context of supervised release.

Next Monday, Nov. 10: Landor v. La. Dept. Corrections:  Whether an individual may sue a government official in his individual capacity for damages for violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.

Next Wednesday, Nov. 12: Fernandez v. United States:  Whether a combination of “extraordinary and compelling reasons” that may warrant a discretionary sentence reduction under 18 U. S. C. §3582(c)(1)(a) can include reasons that may also be alleged as grounds for vacatur of a sentence under 28 U. S. C. §2255.

Next Wednesday, Nov. 12: Rutherford v. United States and Carter v. United States:  Nonretroactive changes in sentencing law as grounds for sentence reduction. Continue reading . . .

Federalist Society Convention — National Guard in Cities

by · Nov 3, 2025 11:14 am

The Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention is this week, Thursday through Saturday. It is being held at the Washington Hilton, having outgrown its traditional venue at the Mayflower Hotel. Many of the panels will be live-streamed for free.

Update 11/21: The panel recordings were offline for a time while they cleaned up the audio. The are accessible once again.

The panel for the Criminal Law Practice Group is “Crime, Cities, and the Guard: The Legal and Policy Dimensions of Domestic Troop Deployment.” Cully Stimson of the Heritage Foundation is on the panel. Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones is the moderator. The scheduled time is 3:45-5:00 EST pm Thursday, 12:45-2:00 pm PST.

Continue reading . . .

AI Hallucinations in Court Orders

by · Oct 29, 2025 10:31 am

The use of artificial intelligence (and sometimes artificial stupidity) has taken a dangerous turn. It’s deplorable when lawyers use AI to draft briefs with made-up precedents and false “facts,” at least without a thorough, human check. But briefs alone do not have legal effect, and the errors can be found by opposing counsel and the court.

But now there is a horrifying new turn. Daniel Wu reports for the Washington Post:

Two federal judges in New Jersey and Mississippi admitted this month that their offices used artificial intelligence to draft factually inaccurate court documents that included fake quotes and fictional litigants — drawing a rebuke from the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Continue reading . . .

Who to Believe About Crime Data

by · Oct 27, 2025 11:34 am

An article by Hans Bader in Liberty Unyielding raises questions about the reliability of government reported crime data.  The article cites statistics compiled by UCLA PhD and former Harvard Professor John Lott which indicate that prior to the Biden administration, the annual FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) tracking reported crime in the U.S. and the separately conducted National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which interviews roughly 240,000 Americans about crimes committed against them,  complemented each other by indicating similar trends in criminal activity.  But, as Lott notes, after 2020,

“they’ve diverged sharply: The FBI reports fewer crimes, while more Americans say they’ve been victimized. Unreported crime was always a factor . . . . Another factor appears to have skewed the FBI data: the breakdown of law enforcement in this country. When people believe police won’t catch or prosecutors won’t punish criminals, they’re simply less likely to report crimes. Between 2010 and 2019, victims reported 63.3% of violent crimes to police. In the last three years, that number plummeted to 48.8%. Arrests fell as well–from 26.5% before COVID-19 to just 16.6% afterward.”

Continue reading . . .

Judge Resentences Menendez Brothers

by · Oct 22, 2025 11:29 am

A Los Angeles judge has resentenced the Menendez brothers, originally serving life without parole, to 50-years-to-life.  ABC News reports that the brothers, who murdered their parents with shotguns in 1989,  are immediately eligible for parole.  Later in the story reporter Emily Shapiro writes,

“It could take months before Erik and Lyle Menendez are assigned a parole date for the resentencing case. They are eligible for that parole date right away, as inmates with a sentence of 25 years-to-life or longer can get their hearing during the 25th year of incarceration, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.”

The 25-year eligibility comes under California’s “youth offender parole” statute. It was originally enacted for inmates under 18 at the time of the crime to address problems created by U.S. Supreme Court decisions. However, the Legislature later expanded it to all inmates under 26 at the time of the crime.

Guns and Drug Users

by · Oct 20, 2025 8:54 am

This morning the U.S. Supreme Court took up yet another Second Amendment case, United States v. Hemani, No. 24-1234.

The wide-ranging federal gun control statute (18 U.S.C. § 922) prohibits gun possession by, among many others, “(g) … any person … (3) who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802)).”

Does that law sweep too broadly? The federal courts of appeals are divided. Continue reading . . .

Restitution and Ex Post Facto

by · Oct 15, 2025 10:00 am

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument on whether a restitution order under the federal Mandatory Victim Restitution Act is a criminal sanction, subject to the constitutional prohibition against retroactive legislation in the Ex Post Facto Clause. The case is Ellingburg v. United States, No. 24-482.

The legislation and its history provide enough indications that Congress intended a criminal sanction that the Solicitor General agreed with the defendant, and the court appointed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) to argue in support of the court of appeals’ judgment. Appointed amici do not often prevail in this situation, although it does happen. Not likely in this case. Continue reading . . .