Circuit Courts Divided on Trump’s Sanctuary City Grants

by · Jul 20, 2020 3:43 pm

Last Monday, the Ninth Circuit scaled back a nationwide order that blocks the Trump administration from cutting off grants to sanctuary jurisdictions after finding that the mandate should only apply in California.

Nicholas Iovino of Courthouse News reports that the new verdict comes after a 2017 lawsuit brought by San Francisco. The city sued the Justice Department after the Trump Administration announced plans to make jurisdictions ineligible for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, unless they gave immigration agents unrestricted access to local jails, and provided 48 hours’ notice before releasing undocumented immigrants from jail. California joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff, and later passed it’s own separate set of “Sanctuary State” laws in October 2017.

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Anarchy, One Rape at a Time

by · Jul 18, 2020 11:16 pm

In my last post, I noted that the woke culture’s drumbeat of hate against the United States was certain to have, and in fact is having, consequences.  In part, they are being reflected in the surge of riots, arson and other violent crime that even the Left no longer bothers to deny.  But while the denials have withered, in their place have come the dodges and excuses.  One of the most popular is that (ever heard this one?) “correlation is not causation.”  Hey, look  —  the story goes  —  violent crime has always tended to increase in warmer months.  It’s not the woke culture’s anthem of fury; it’s just correlation with the weather.  So what’s to worry?

What’s to worry is that if we tell people whose stability is none too good to start with that they are justified in their anger and hate, eventually they’ll believe us.  And when they believe us, they’re going to act on what we’ve been telling them.

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Anarchy

by · Jul 18, 2020 10:24 pm

When the dominant voices in the culture are telling us at 10,000 decibels that our country is a racist cesspool, that it routinely treats a large segment of its population with callousness if not cruelty, that its history is a stain and its promise a fraud, that is going to have consequences.  We are starting to see them.  One aspect of the display is the widespread, sudden and shocking increase in violence, documented in this post.  Another, related aspect is in the attack on the monuments to our history  —  and not just Confederate monuments, which were a bait-and-switch  —  but on monuments to Lincoln, Grant, and Fredrick Douglass, among many others.

There was another attack last night.  John Hinderaker has the story

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Violence and Crime in the US Surges

by · Jul 17, 2020 3:48 pm

Violent crime rates have been soaring across the US, as the global pandemic and nation-wide protests create the ‘perfect storm of distress.’

The summer season brings substantially higher crime rates in most parts of the country, causing many agencies to deploy more officers than usual to keep cities safe. This year, police departments are also struggling amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the challenges of safely battling civil unrest, and heightened political tensions.  Now, they also facing rising crime.   Fox News’ Stephanie Pagones compares crime data from across the country, reporting how cities have been affected by this year’s challenges.

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USCA-DC Denies Stay in Federal Execution Case

by · Jul 17, 2020 8:45 am

Number three in USDOJ’s murderers row, Dustin Honken, is set for execution today. Honken was a drug trafficker who murdered a dealer turned informant. He also murdered three other people in the household–a mother and her two children aged 10 and 6. He later murdered a fifth person.

Early this morning, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a stay pending appeal of Honken’s claim under the Administrative Procedure Act. See this post from Wednesday for a brief description of that claim and the District Judge’s rejection of it.

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Early Release Keeps the Morgue Busy

by · Jul 16, 2020 10:49 pm

“Sentencing reform” is the intentionally opaque phrase given to abbreviated sentences and early release handed out to felons, often repeat drug pushers.  The mantra is that “sentencing reform” restores families and returns renewed and productive men to the community.

That might be right every now and again.  Certainly it’s all the reformers are willing to talk about.  But a steadfast refusal to look at the costs of early release is as dishonest as it is dangerous.  Hence this story from the New York Daily News:  “Three men — longtime partners in crime — charged with gunning down dad in front of his young daughter in Bronx drive-by.”

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Lying and Other Hijinks About the Death Penalty

by · Jul 16, 2020 3:43 pm

Relatively unnoticed among her several frenetic attempts to come to the aid of a child killer was Judge Tanya Chutkan’s order (wiped away by the Supreme Court last night) to stay the Purkey execution because the drug to be used had not been approved by the FDA as “safe” and effective, and had not been prescribed by a physician.  Kent analysed this attempt here, but there is more that usefully could be said.

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Race Huckstering Goes Stark Raving Mad

by · Jul 16, 2020 12:40 pm

In my view, criminal law properly conceived has nothing to do with race and everything to do with behavior.  When I was a federal prosecutor (as an appellate lawyer), I typically did not know and did not care to know the defendant’s or the victim’s race.  The only thing that mattered was that they were human beings entitled to fair-minded and sober application of the law.

But then, I’m decidedly un-woke.  Trying to write on a criminal law blog without discussing race has become, in the moment, a hopeless enterprise.  Thus it’s not because I prefer it, but because it’s been shoved in all our faces, that I feel constrained to point out that the concern (some might say obsession) with race has now officially gone nuts.

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Berkeley to Eliminate Traffic Cops

by · Jul 16, 2020 10:45 am

After hours of emotional testimony, city leaders in Berkeley, (pronounced Berserkley), voted to replace police with unarmed civilians for traffic stops to curtail racial profiling.  Janie Har of the Associated Press reports that a separate civilian-run department would be created by the city to enforce parking and traffic laws as part of the effort to cut the Police Department budget in half.

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Killer Executed After Supreme Court Vacates Three Stays

by · Jul 16, 2020 8:02 am

AP reports:

Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Purkey had been convicted of kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old girl, Jennifer Long, before dismembering, burning and dumping her body in a septic pond. He also was convicted in a state court in Kansas after using a claw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who had polio.

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