by Bill Otis · Jul 1, 2021 9:42 pm
Thirty years ago today, President George H. W. Bush, whom I had the honor of serving in White House Counsel’s Office, announced a step forward for America, for the law, an for an understanding of why courage matters. A high-tech lynching would not be enough to stop it. Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 1, 2021 8:14 am
The U.S. Supreme Court today held 6-3 that the First Amendment protects nonprofit organizations from blanket requirements to disclose their donors. The case is Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, No. 19-251. Continue reading . . .
by Michael Rushford · Jun 29, 2021 2:22 pm
One of the most devastating changes to California law in recent years was Proposition 57, Jerry Brown’s “Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act,” adopted by voters in 2016. Everything about the initiative was a lie. It was not about public safety and rehabilitation, it was designed to release thousands of hardcore criminals from prison, years and sometimes decades early. Governor Brown claimed it would only allow non-violent criminals qualify for early release, but District Attorneys and the Courts determined that anyone, including criminals convicted of forcible rape and murder would qualify. The initiative also removed all control over who gets released early and how long a sentence they must serve from the legislature and placed it with the Governor and his Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Weeks ago the CDCR announced that it intended to make up to 76,000 prison inmates, including rapists and murderers serving life terms, eligible for parole and early release. This could not happen without Governor Gavin Newsom’s approval. 43 District Attorneys, led by Sacramento DA Anne Marie Schubert, are suing to block this policy.
by Amber Westbrook · Jun 29, 2021 10:01 am
Mark Calvey of The San Francisco Business Times has this story discussing a survey of City residents measuring their overall concerns about their environment. The article states the following:
Amid sharply rising concerns about crime and quality-of-life issues, 44% of respondents to the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce’s annual CityBeat poll say they intend to leave the city in the next few years. The CityBeat survey found that homelessness and “street behavior” is a top concern for 65% of respondents, with crime and open-air drug-dealing a top concern for 46%. Longstanding problems facing San Francisco residents — housing affordability and cost of living — were far behind, cited as top concerns by 19% and 10%, respectively.
by Kent Scheidegger · Jun 29, 2021 8:42 am
The U.S. Supreme Court issued three decisions today as it wraps up its October 2020 term. The one marginally crime-related case is Johnson v. Guzman Chavez, No. 19-987. The case involves the detention pending deportation of aliens previously deported who illegally re-enter the United States. Such re-entry is a crime, a more serious one than first-time illegal entry. The holding is that such aliens are subject to the more stringent of two statutes on detention pending deportation, rather than the more lenient one with more leeway for release on bond or conditional parole. Continue reading . . .
by Amber Westbrook · Jun 28, 2021 1:55 pm
In a City Journal article former District Attorney Thomas Hogan notes that progressive DAs are abusing their discretion to set countywide policies to prevent the enforcement of laws enacted to discourage and punish crime.
Baltimore is not prosecuting shoplifting or drug-possession crimes. Despite recent violent protests and occupations, St. Louis is not pursuing cases for looting and rioting, while Portland isn’t pursuing charges for trespassing. Philadelphia won’t allow prostitution charges. San Francisco is not prosecuting indecent exposure offenses. Chicago declines arrests for thefts of less than $1,000.
by Kent Scheidegger · Jun 28, 2021 8:44 am
The U.S. Supreme Court issued two summary decisions today. In Lombardo v. St. Louis, No. 20-391, the Court sent a case back to the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, a procedure known as “grant, vacate, and remand” or GVR. The case involves the death in custody of likely suicidal prisoner who was very actively resisting officers’ attempts to subdue him. Ironically, they caused the very result he tried to inflict on himself–death by asphyxiation.
Quoting a 2015 precedent, the unsigned opinion for the majority says that deciding claims such as these “requires careful attention to the facts and circumstances of each particular case.” See the problem here? Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Jun 25, 2021 2:47 pm
As noted in Wednesday’s summary post, the U.S. Supreme Court held that day that the fact that a police officer is in “hot pursuit” of a person believed to have committed a misdemeanor (as opposed to a felony) is not by itself sufficient justification to enter a home with neither consent nor a warrant. The case is Lange v. California, No. 20-18. Continue reading . . .
by Amber Westbrook · Jun 25, 2021 1:53 pm
Katy Grimes of the California Globe has this story discussing what is making California’s cities more dangerous with recent data on crime rates. Grimes mentions a few of the propositions that have impacted crime over the last decade.
Proposition 47 largely decriminalized theft and drug crimes by reducing those crimes and a number of other “non-violent” felonies to misdemeanors; Prop. 57 allows early release for “non-violent offenders,” including rape by intoxication of an unconscious person, human trafficking involving a sex act with minors, arson causing great bodily harm, drive-by shooting, assault with a deadly weapon, and hostage taking.
However, there is one bill that was not highlighted. AB 109 signed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2011 which allowed for the release approximately 30,000 felons from state prison with most going on probation rather than parole. This bill removed the option of prison sentences for crimes such as auto theft, drug felonies and domestic violence and replaced it with county jail time or rehabilitation services.
by Bill Otis · Jun 24, 2021 1:47 pm
Pres. Biden was older when he took office than Ronald Reagan was when he left. It’s not exactly a secret that older people can have problems with forgetfulness. Pres. Biden seems to be having such a moment in his attempts, summarized here and here, to come up with an answer to the dramatic rise in violent crime (a rise that started under his predecessor last year but has continued full throttle during Biden’s tenure).
On the other hand, perhaps it’s not so much that Biden can’t remember how to deal with crime effectively — a project he helped advance as a senator 25 years ago — as it is that, given the radical leftward shift in the Democratic Party, he can’t afford to remember. Instead, he has to pretend that the Left’s reality-free narrative — a jazzed-up version of the failed soft-on-crime policies of the Sixties and Seventies — is the answer.
It isn’t. It’s pathetic. And it will cost lives, disproportionately — as is always the case with violent crime — black lives.
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