Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Crime and punishment roundup

  • In order to stick it to President Trump and any associates he may pardon, New York legislature moves to chip away at what had been strong protections against double jeopardy. Not good [Sam Bieler via Scott Greenfield, Jacob Sullum]
  • Judge rules that New Jersey may not automatically suspend driving privileges over unpaid child support without a hearing to establish willfulness, lest it violate due process and fundamental fairness [New Jersey Law Journal; Kavadas v. Martinez on David Perry Davis website]
  • Different views of the institution of cash bail [Alex Tabarrok at Brookings conference, Cato podcast with Daniel Dew of the Buckeye Institute, Scott Shackford]
  • “To Seek Justice: Defining the Power of the Prosecutor,” Federalist Society short documentary video featuring Jessie K. Liu, Mark Geragos, Steven H. Cook, John Malcolm, Zac Bolitho, Bennett L. Gershman, and Clark Neily;
  • “Florida lawmakers just voted to create a public registry of people caught paying or attempting to pay for sex….it will certainly transfer private money to the state, give bureaucrats something to do, and provide the public with people to gawk at and judge” [Elizabeth Nolan Brown, Reason]
  • Wisconsin: “County Pays $90,000 Settlement To Man After Seizing $80,000 Judgment From Him Using 24 Deputies And An Armored Vehicle” [Tim Cushing in December]

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4 Comments

  • “… a public registry of people caught paying or attempting to pay for sex…”

    And how about a public registry of state employees who offer to provide sex in exchange for money. This of course would include the undercover police officers trolling for Johns.

    • By gasman

  • The NY law also seems to have an ex post facto problem. And an Equal Protection Problem.

    • By SPO

    • Would the NY law pass the constitutionality test? Double jeopardy laws seem like a slam dunk fail or am I missing something?.

      • Could NY argue that if Trump gave the subject a *preemptive* pardon (like Ford for Nixon), before the subject had been charged for anything, that the subject had never been “put in [Federal] jeopardy” in the Constitutional sense?

        If so, there might be some interesting gamesmanship, with Trump initiating prosecutions of allies simply in order to ensure that pardons would have substance.

        Also, is NY trying to criminalize matters that are not properly in a State’s jurisdiction?