Justice System Archives - Public Seminar

When Children Commit Atrocities

Crimes that tear at our hearts are also opportunities to forgive

January 5, 2022 • by Harold Pollack

A member of my own family was beaten to death by a high school student. That boy is now a man. He walks the streets today. I believe justice has been served....

Activism

Statement about Kyle Rittenhouse Verdict

A letter from the president of The New School

November 22, 2021 • by Dwight A. McBride

Dear New School students and colleagues, I want to take a moment to respond to the verdict that was delivered last Friday afternoon in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, wherein Mr. Rittenhouse was found to be not guilty on all counts. I have heard from many individuals in The New School community ...

Statement about Kyle Rittenhouse Verdict

Democracy

Biden is Changing What ‘Bipartisan’ Means

GOP demands used to be the beginning of Democratic thinking

October 22, 2020 • by John Stoehr

I don’t get annoyed by politicians. Not usually. I understand they must say and do things normal people would never say and do. I don’t hold them to standards I’d normally hold normal people to. Dianne Feinstein, however, is an exception. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee used precious minutes ...

Biden is Changing What ‘Bipartisan’ Means

North America

Mike Pompeo’s Originalist Foreign Policy

The Commission’s report gives ammunition to partisans who aim to weaken core constitutional protections within the United States

July 23, 2020 • by Duncan Hosie

This justification is a pretext. While pretending to strengthen protection for human rights abroad, the Commission’s report gives ammunition to partisans who aim to weaken core constitutional protections within the United States. Pompeo and the Commission’s report embrace an “originalist” vision of America’s founding. Originalism is a doctrine in constitutional law ...

Mike Pompeo’s Originalist Foreign Policy

Prisons and Police

Behind Bars in the Age of Coronavirus

A letter from prison

June 18, 2020 • by Phyllis Dietrichson

Is it wise or exploitative? My “soap shop” job is part of a difficult matrix of concepts. On the one hand, I am grateful to have the opportunity to work and contribute to the cause. On the other, I feel expendable and like a slave. But then again, I once ...

Prisons and Police

Out of Jail and Homeless

City struggles to stop COVID-19’s spread among New York’s recently released prisoners

May 6, 2020 • by Abigail Kramer

Stefan Outlaw had just recovered from the worst of his COVID-19 symptoms when he learned that a charitable fund had paid to bail him out of the Rikers Island jail. It was mid-March, and much of the jail population was quarantined in cells for 24 hours a day. Outlaw, age ...

Feature

Who Goes to Jail for Sex Crimes?

Weiner’s sentencing should be a wake-up call

October 10, 2017 • by Haylee Millikan

Despite his plea to serve his time as a suspended sentence, he will spend 21 months incarcerated for sexting with a 15-year-old. In a series of exchanges, he cajoled her into undressing and touching herself on Skype, and then sent her explicit messages about what he would do to her ...

Feature

The Invisible Constitutional Crisis

Options for the US Supreme Court’s Pending Vacancy

October 28, 2016 • by Matthew Filner

The United States is in the midst of a constitutional crisis. Yes, that’s right: one of the most important crises of our constitutional republic and it is going virtually unnoticed as a crisis. No, I am not talking about the Trump candidacy -- though reprehensible in multiple ways, it is ...

Feature

The OJ Simpson Verdict, Jury Nullification and Black Lives Matter: The Power to Acquit

August 5, 2016 • by Sonali Chakravarti

The nation is, once again, caught up in the OJ Simpson trial because of two riveting series that revisit the case. The FX mini-series, American Crime Story, and the ESPN documentary, OJ: Made in America, provide their audiences with a level of detail and sociological interpretation that can only be achieved 20 years ...