Everyday justice
Professor Tracey Meares has sandwiched this trip to Chicago between two teaching days at the Yale Law School, timing it for when her kids are out of the house. On this cool Thursday morning in May 2017, she’s back in her favorite city, where she lived for almost 20 years. She’s come to Chicago State University to help train investigators for the city’s new Civilian Office of Police Accountability. At Yale, she teaches students in their 20s, in a wood-paneled room hung with portraits in oil, but here in this windowless, fluorescent-lit room, her students are three dozen former prosecutors, defense attorneys, and ex-cops. They will soon begin investigating complaints against Chicago’s often reviled police.
Securing Equal Access to the Ballot for Native Americans
Native Americans, like other minority groups, face racially motivated disenfranchisement efforts. Watershed victories for equal access to the ballot – including the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment and the Nineteenth Amendment – did not affect Native Americans because they were not considered U.S. citizens until the enactment of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924. While the Act nominally enfranchised Native Americans, disenfranchisement tactics remained pervasive at the state level.
D.C. Court of Appeals Cites Restatement Fourth of Foreign Relations
Reversing the District Court’s ruling, the Court of Appeals cited the Restatement of the Law Fourth, The Foreign Relation Law of the United States in its discussion about currency conversion in federal court.
CDC director bought tobacco stock while in office
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Brenda Fitzgerald, bought tobacco stock while in office, Politico reported Tuesday.
Revisit teen sentences
New York will no longer treat many 16- and 17-year old offenders as adults.
Algorithms and Justice: Scrapping the ‘Black Box’
The justice system is increasingly turning to complicated computer algorithms to help make decisions about bail, sentencing and parole. But many question whether paying private software companies to use secret algorithms in criminal justice is in the public’s best interest.
The ALI Adviser is intended to inform readers about the legal topics and issues examined in many of ALI’s current projects; posts do not necessarily represent the position of the Institute taken in those projects. Posts on The ALI Adviser are written by ALI project participants, ALI members, and outside sources. Completed work is available to purchase online.