Category: Judiciary

Bill on Nationwide Injunctions

by · Mar 31, 2025 10:04 am

The practice of individual federal judges issuing nationwide injunctions against particular government actions has long been the subject of complaints from both sides of the political aisle. At each point in time, of course, the side complaining is the side presently in power.

Senator Charles Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has this op-ed in the WSJ regarding a bill he is introducing today to limit this practice, titled the Judicial Relief Clarification Act. As of this writing, today’s bills have not yet appeared on congress.gov, so I do not yet have the details.

Sen. Grassley notes that Justice Kagan has previously denounced such injunctions. A 2022 article in Politico by Josh Gerstein reported her remarks at a Northwestern University event: Continue reading . . .

SF DA Publicly Criticizes Judges

by · Feb 12, 2025 6:45 pm

San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins has been publicly criticizing judges there for excessively lenient sentences. Not surprisingly, she has been getting blowback for that. But it is an important public issue, worthy of public debate. Bob Egelko has this story in the SF Chronicle.

In one recent statement, Jenkins said, “The majority of (San Francisco) judges do not treat drug dealing as a serious crime despite repeat offenses, and the grave consequences visited upon our communities, and the drug dealers therefore do not fear incarceration, or any significant consequence.”

Here are a few specific cases of overly lenient sentences: Continue reading . . .

A Problem of Racism on the Senate Judiciary Committee?

by · Jun 21, 2021 12:01 pm

Two days after the first national celebration of Juneteenth, you probably thought we were past the time when United States senators, particularly on the Judiciary Committee charged with helping to guarantee civil rights, would be members of fancy all-white clubs.  Indeed, until just now, I wasn’t aware that all-while clubs still existed.

Time to wake up.  Meet Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, former US Attorney for Rhode Island and now Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights.

Continue reading . . .

First, They Came for the DA …

by · Dec 16, 2020 12:08 pm

Now, they are coming for the deputies.

Next, they will come for the judges.

But all is not lost.

The Metropolitan News-Enterprise has this article on an effort by the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office to get its deputies to report deputy district attorneys who do not abide by new DA George Gascón’s directives and judges who refuse, among other things, to strike sentence-enhancing allegations. One deputy PD reported in a tweet that “our office received an email link from Mr. Gascón’s transition team instructing us to report every DA who is disobeying the new policy directives…with case details. It is very sad that the process has become Gestapo-like.” (Emphasis added.) Continue reading . . .

To Pack or Not to Pack, That Is the Question

by · Oct 22, 2020 4:56 pm

That may be the question, but Joe Biden won’t be giving us the answer.  Instead, he’s going to create a commission to “study” the issue of court packing, and other supposed judicial “reforms,” and get back to us.

Creating a commission is one of the oldest dodges in DC, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Mr. Biden would recur to it  —  he having been in this town since the War in Vietnam.  But it’s still just a dodge. Continue reading . . .

Judge Barrett, Recusal, and Capital Cases

by · Sep 29, 2020 2:10 pm

The nomination of Seventh Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court has focused new attention on a 1998 law review article she co-authored with John Garvey, Catholic Judges in Capital Cases. This article is unlikely to be a roadblock to her confirmation, but it does raise a question that needs to be answered.

Right out of the gate, we should note what Professor Garvey, the senior author of the article, wrote in the WaPo last week. “It would hardly be reasonable to hold Barrett responsible for everything we said back then, when she was still a law student and the junior partner in the endeavor.” Quite right. Even as an indication of her views at the time, the junior partner does not typically decide the positions that will be taken. Further, one’s views on issues may change with time and experience. That was 22 years ago, and a lot of water has passed under her bridge since then. Continue reading . . .

For Judge Amul Thapar, the Rule of Law Counts

by · Sep 14, 2020 5:45 pm

Judge Amul Thapar is one of many excellent appointments President Trump has made to the federal courts of appeals.  He showed it again in his opinion today for a unanimous Sixth Circuit panel that reversed, and removed from the case, a district judge disinclined to follow established law.  The subtitle of Judge Thapar’s work could easily be, “Being A Judge Is A Job Not An Anointment.”

Continue reading . . .

The Chief Justice’s Year-End Report

by · Jan 2, 2020 9:30 am

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts’ year-end report on the judiciary is available on the Supreme Court website. The main theme is the importance of civic education and combating disinformation, and that has been the subject of most of the commentary. Just as important, though, is the Chief’s comment on the importance of judges doing their main job correctly.

Continue reading . . .