The Past and Future of Guantanamo Bay
Jonathan Hansen is Senior Lecturer on Social Studies and History at Harvard University. Sabin Willett is a partner at Bingham […]
Amicus, Criminal Justice, Events, Human Rights
Human Rights
Amicus, Education & Youth, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights, LGBTQ Rights, Sex Equality, Uncategorized
On ‘The Slow Death of Free Speech at Harvard’
HLS graduate Harvey Silverglate was on campus recently to explain why he’s not happy with his alma mater. Apparently Harvard has
Amicus, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights, Labor and Employment, Reproductive Rights, Sex Equality
Don’t Restrict My Religious Freedom (to Oppress You)
Over the past few months, circuit courts have started weighing in on the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employers’ health
Nixon’s Ghost
We know that Obama has largely continued the drone policies of the Bush administration. Even so, the approving nod to Nixon’s expansion of the Vietnam War across Southeast Asia is an unexpected development.
Combating Sex Trafficking in the Internet Age
Combating sex trafficking requires new and innovative thinking in today’s internet age. Because of websites like Craigslist and Backpage, it
The Fight For Equal Treatment Is Not Yet Won
Today’s national Civil Rights dialogue focuses largely on immigration, reproductive issues, and LGBTQ rights. Certainly, each of these issues critically
Kosilek: Access to Medical Treatment and the Limits of Civil Rights Protections
Rather than condemning the profligacy of the State in providing basic human rights for its most marginalized, we must continue to demand positive rights for all. Demanding humane treatment of inmates is substantively necessary, but can also be strategically valuable because it is one of the few spaces in our jurisprudence that recognizes the language of positive human rights.
Measuring our “Evolved Standard of Decency” in Miller
Can we square the invocation of evolving standards of decency with the recognized fact that the criminal justice system in the United States is, in general, far more punitive than it once was? I think that we can, if we allow for a fuller recognition of both the compromises that go into legislation and the expression of social values in extra-legal settings.
Does “Cruel and Unusual” Have to Be Unusual?
In Miller v. Alabama, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 that the Eighth Amendment prohibits a sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison without parole for juvenile homicide offenders. Despite Justice Kagan’s protestations, the Court was not eliminating an outlying vestige of once common, brutal punishment, but instead a practice that was common. The holding suggests the Court may be willing to take a more activist role in monitoring state criminal justice systems.
[Update] First Circuit Says Feds Can Pursue Capital Prosecution Over Governor’s Objection
United States v. Pleau raises legal questions that deserve more attention than the case is likely to receive. The case can actually be seen as being about the location of the primary police power in the American system of constitutional federalism, and it exposes the increasing strain that the modern conception of federal power is placing on the founding era experiment in dual sovereignty. Pleau should challenge progressives to think critically about the desirable scope of the federal government’s power under the Commerce Clause.
Courts & Judicial Interpretation, Criminal Justice, Human Rights
[Update3] SCOTUS Fails to Intervene to Prevent Execution of Mentally Ill Defendant
[Update3 – 10PM February 8] Edwin Hart Turner was executed at 7:21PM EST after receiving a lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary. Turner, represented by attorneys from the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, had filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court arguing that the execution would violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments because at the time of his offense Mr. Turner suffered from a serious mental illness.