Teach constitutional rights, human rights and policy advocacy at Princeton University. Founding Director, Princeton Policy Advocacy Clinic. Former ACLU attorney for 20 years. Chair, International Advisory Council, Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
Bombshell report from the Wall Street Journal: DHS has been tracking down Americans at work and on the road who are critical of immigration policies, spending millions on contractors to surveil First Amendment protected speech and create political dossiers. Outrageous. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
How ICE Is Weaponizing Social Media Against Its CriticsThe agency says its surveillance program searches for threats to agents, but critics see free-speech infringements.www.wsj.comUp to one-fifth of prisoners in Italy may be released to serve their sentences at home while undergoing rehab programs due to new law that allows the release of prisoners with drug and alcohol addictions. www.thenews.pk/print/142911...
Italy passes law to release thousands of inmates with addictionsROME: Italy’s parliament on Wednesday passed a law potentially allowing thousands of prisoners with drug or alcohol addictions to serve their sentences at home while undergoing rehab...www.thenews.pkCrime in US cities continues to fall dramatically. Homicide is down 51% in the first half of 2026 than the first half of 2022, carjacking down 73% vs. 2023, residential burglary down 56% vs. 2018, and motor vehicle theft down 51% vs. 2023. counciloncj.org/crime-trends...
Crime Trends in U.S. Cities: Mid-Year 2026 Update - Council on Criminal JusticeExamining changes in 13 offenses across a sample of 36 large U.S. cities, CCJ's mid-year analysis shows crime has continued to fall in the first half of 2026, with homicide likely dropping to another ...counciloncj.orgUntil recently, no state other than Alabama sent more young people to adult court, per capita, than Maryland, where children as young as 14 years-old have been automatically charged as adults. Now that has changed www.sentencingproject.org/press-releas...
Maryland Passes Youth Charging Reform Act – The Sentencing Projectwww.sentencingproject.orgReally big news out of Ohio today, as Republican Governor Mike DeWine comes out against the death penalty. Ohio has 30 executions scheduled over the next four years. This announcement comes at a time when the death penalty has its lowest support recorded in decades, at 52% apnews.com/article/deat...
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine wants Ohio to abolish the death penalty, saying it is not a deterrentGov. Mike DeWine says he believes Ohio should abolish the death penalty. The term-limited governor, who has repeatedly postponed scheduled executions, said Tuesday that data shows the death penalty is...apnews.comRecord low number of people find the death penalty to be morally acceptable. Annual Gallup poll finds 52% of Americans believe the death penalty is acceptable, down from 71% in 2006. news.gallup.com/poll/710981/...
Great new report by @micheledeitch.bsky.social on the problem of sleep deprivation in prison. Many of the conditions that undermine restorative sleep are not inevitable features of incarceration, but operational and policy choices that can be changed. lbj.utexas.edu/new-report-e...
New Report Exposes the Impact of Chronic Sleep Disruption in U.S. Prisons and JailsA new report from the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab (PJIL) at The University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs reveals that chronic sleep disruption is a widespread and ...lbj.utexas.eduBig news out of Israel: Yesterday, Israel's Supreme Court, in petition by @acrionline.bsky.social, found state's ban on visits by the International Committee of Red Cross to Palestinian security detainees had no basis. Court ordered resumption of ICRC visits: www.english.acri.org.il/post/repeal-...
Repeal the Ban on Red Cross Visits to Palestinian Prisoners | Association for Civil Rights in IsraelOn February 22, 2024, ACRI, Physicians for Human Rights, HaMoked and Gisha petitioned the High Court of Justice (Hebrew) demanding that Red Cross representatives be allowed to visit Palestinian prison...www.english.acri.org.ilFollowing the horrible school shooting in Uvalde, Texas passed a law requiring at least one cop at each public school. The result? Like in school districts across the country, police end up using force and arrests to enforce school discipline interactive-server.newsdev.nytimes.com/share/36804c...
Texas School Police Pepper-Sprayed, Tackled and Tasered StudentsSchool officers across the state turned to heavy-handed tactics on children, often in response to minor misbehavior, our investigation shows.interactive-server.newsdev.nytimes.comFantastic story about incarcerated people in New Jersey & the Inmate Legal Association, which is comprised of jailhouse lawyers representing their neighbors in prison. @prisonjournalism.bsky.social is doing great work to bring to life the stories of people in prison. Highly recommend following them
Prison Journalism ProjectMy jailhouse lawyer, White, "is the executive director of the Inmate Legal Association, or ILA, a nonprofit organization of jailhouse lawyers tasked with assisting the incarcerated with legal and disciplinary matters inside New Jersey State Prison in Trenton."
Dehumanization in prison leads to preposterous rules such as limiting toilet flushing to every 5 minutes. The result? People unable to flush their waste and the smell of feces filling prison spaces. Pennsylvania needs to change this policy. prisonjournalismproject.org/2026/05/14/a...
New Pennsylvania Prison Policy Limits Toilet FlushesYes, and at this Pennsylvania facility, flushing restrictions are causing problems.prisonjournalismproject.orgJudges have ruled against ICE mandatory detention practices in roughly 90 percent of cases since the agency mandated that millions of immigrants must be locked up while they face deportation proceedings. And ICE routinely defies these court orders. www.politico.com/news/2026/05...
10,000 rulings: The courts’ overwhelming rebuke of Trump’s ICE policiesA POLITICO analysis reveals judges have ruled against ICE detention practices in roughly 90 percent of cases since the agency mandated that millions of immigrants must be locked up while they face dep...www.politico.comPowerful piece by @nycpublic.bsky.social on the impact of deportations on US citizen children and others. "Even her college fund was gone, used to pay for her mother’s legal defense. The future Garcia so clearly envisioned...was derailed as soon as ICE detained her mother" www.nj.com/education/20...
'They took my mom': N.J. students missing school at alarming rates amid ICE fearsNew Jersey students from immigrant families describe a school year filled with chaos, fear and loss as ICE raids devastate their families.www.nj.comThe number of daily immigration arrests have dropped by nearly 40% from December to March, and immigration detention is also down. So now Trump is facing pressure from some in his base to increase mass deportations. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
New DHS chief’s call for quieter immigration enforcement alarms MAGA baseGroups like the Mass Deportation Coalition see Markwayne Mullin’s push to restore confidence in DHS after fatal shootings as a potential betrayal of the president’s promise.www.washingtonpost.comImportant new report from @sentencingproject.bsky.social on reentry, based on interviews with 33 people who returned home after long-term imprisonment, having been locked away from 20 to 43 years, and after being home for as little as 3 months up to roughly 3.5 years at the time of their interview:
The Sentencing ProjectOur new report highlights the experiences and challenges of 33 formerly incarcerated people released after decades of imprisonment in California, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, New York, Oregon and Washington, D.C, as they attempt to rebuild their lives. bit.ly/4sPvlGc
My article on how declarations of the death of criminal justice reform are wrong. In 2025 alone, 35 states passed 115 cj reform laws but got no national media attention. Organizations on left & right continue to work together. We're in quiet phase of the movement www.justsecurity.org/131987/crimi...
Criminal Justice Reform Didn’t End — It DecentralizedWhile federal policy has shifted sharply in a punitive direction, state governments continue to drive criminal justice reform.www.justsecurity.orgAs a young lawyer post-9/11, my first exposure to bipartisanship was in the fight against needlessly sacrificing civil liberties in the name of national security. Left and right worked together to try to reform the USA PATRIOT Act. Similar fight now brewing on 702: www.politico.com/news/2026/03...
‘Warrants or bust’: House hard-liners deliver ultimatum ahead of spy powers voteA long-brewing confrontation over Section 702 surveillance authorities comes to a head next week.www.politico.comCrime, violence, and drug use are now among the lower-ranked concerns of Americans: news.gallup.com/poll/707732/...
Healthcare Reclaims Top Spot Among U.S. Domestic WorriesAmericans say they worry most about healthcare among 16 domestic issues, followed by the economy, inflation, the federal budget and income inequality.news.gallup.comYeah, I've been making the federalism point for a year, including the fact that we have about 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the US, and the president has no control over about 17,900 of them.
John PfaffThe extent of our federalism was the one thing that "we are Germany in the 1930s" takes have struck me as never engaging with enough. Whatever its legal protections, federalism's single biggest protection has been one of capacity: the Feds are REALLY thinly staffed.
Wall Street Journal reports on Trump's attacks on free speech: Protesters and observers taken into custody by federal agents were declared terrorists in hundreds of social-media posts by U.S. officials and departments since the start of the immigration sweeps in cities www.wsj.com/us-news/immi...