Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at the National Urban League Annual Conference in Philadelphia on Thursday. The full text of his remarks is here. AG Holder discussed the recent Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder, concerning the Voting Rights Act of 1965, calling it “deeply disapp...
How Locking Up Adolescents Contributes to Crime
In June, Anna Aizer and Joseph Doyle, in conjuction with the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts released a working paper on rates of incarceration for juvenile offenders and how they correlate with future criminal acts: Juvenile Incarceration, Human Capital And Future C...
Limited Scope Representation and Access to Justice
Last Friday, the Law Bulletin reported that the Illinois Supreme Court has adopted rule changes to clarify and expand limited scope representation. The Illinois State Bar Association also reported on the change. Limited scope representation happens when a person hires an attorney to handle only pa...
The Tennessee Model for Judicial Disqualification
A robust, transparent, and meaningful recusal process empowers judges and litigants. Clear standards in the code of judicial conduct (or “judicial canon”) keep judges informed of their responsibilities and the boundaries of their activities, while leaving them latitude to remain independent. Where t...
Policy Brief on Judicial Evaluations
Since 2010, the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice has managed a Pilot Project for judicial evaluation: the Judicial Performance Commission of Cook County. This demonstration project explores the feasibility of using the performance commission model to evaluate judicial retention candidates to posit...