Rounding up a few recent headlines and commentary of note for Sunday reads

October 4, 2020

Busy days on various fronts (and expected distractions by other matters in the coming week) has me concerned I will not find time blog at length about a number of recent news pieces and commentaries that seemed noteworthy. So I will make up for limited time with a weekend round-up, which will link to the pieces and add a quick hit of comment/link/snark:

From the AP, “Ex-congressman seeks to delay going to prison, citing COVID” (it would be nice if current members of Congress would pass the COVID-19 Safer Detention Act given these persistent prison problems)
From The Hill, “Judge orders Trump law enforcement panel to halt over rule violations” (but for this being sad reality, it would seem like an Onion satire to suggest that the US Attorney General would operate a federal “Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice” in violation of federal law)
From Alabama local press, “Tuscaloosa County man gets 600 years in prison for sexually exploiting 2 young children” (thanks to the FIRST STEP Act, this federal defendant might only have to serve 510 years with good behavior; I wonder what kinds of cars will be picking this defendant up come the year 2530)
From the Colorado local press, “Polis grants pardons to 2,732 people for marijuana convictions under new bipartisan law” (I am pleased to see this news, but it still seems overdue given that voters in Colorado fully legalized marijuana a full eight year ago)
From the Idaho local press, “In death penalty cases, the costs quickly add up” (now that the feds are back in the business of carrying out death sentences, I keep thinking of some of my long-ago discussion of the idea that states ought not waste limited taxpayer dollars on capital cases that might be taken up by the feds)
From SCOTUSblog, “Symposium: Procedural equality in Ginsburg’s criminal justice decisions” (a quote from Lisa Kern Griffin: “Though less celebrated, some of her criminal procedure decisions expressed a related commitment to fairness and access. She emphasized the rights of criminal defendants to participate fully in the adversarial process, to have adequate counsel, and to contest government overreach.”
From Crime & Consequences, “Obstructing Justice on the Pretense of Redressing Discrimination” (a quote from Kent Scheidegger discussing the new California Racial Justice Act noted in this prior post here: “The Legislature has not merely opened a can of worms; it has opened a freight train load of cobras.”)