Eliza Hersh quoted in The Boston Globe, March 8, 2015
“This is not a new problem, it’s just one that’s getting recognition now,” said Eliza Hersh. “One thing that often surprises people is they were arrested wrongly, or years and years ago, and it always remains on their records.”
Melissa Murray, Kristin Luker and Jill Adams quoted in Los Angeles Times, March 5, 2015
“There were lots of instructors who were interested in teaching, but the absence of a casebook was a huge deterrent because it means you actually have to compile the materials yourself,” Murray said. “It also suggested that the field was not a field at all because it hadn’t been defined by a book.”
“Reproductive justice,” Luker said, “suggests that having a baby is just as important as the right not to have a baby.”
“The publication of this book signals the legitimacy of the subject matter as an area of study, and also as an area of practice,” said Jill Adams. … “In legal education, these cases and concepts are given very short shrift. It’s a victory to have this subject matter encased in that familiar blue binding on the shelf alongside all the other well-established courses.”
Jonathan Simon interviewed by Slate, March 4, 2015
Many crimes are legally considered violent “even if no force is used, let alone injury suffered,” said Jonathan Simon. “Violence is a much more capacious legal category than most people assume.”
Megan McCracken quoted in The Washington Post, March 4, 2015
The cloudy drug “raises significant concerns about Georgia’s ability to carry out executions in compliance with the Constitution, but we don’t know what really happened,” said Megan McCracken. … “Because of the secrecy surrounding Georgia’s procedures, it is impossible to say if this is indicative of a larger problem,” she said.
Jesse Choper quoted in The Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2015
Jesse Choper said it is “wholly legitimate” for Chief Justice Roberts to consider the real-world impact of his vote, regardless of his best reading of the statutory text. “He is the chief, and part of his mission is to preserve the integrity of the court, and to preserve at least its appearance of impartiality,” Mr. Choper said.
David Gamage quoted in The Washington Post, March 1, 2015
“Nobody I talked to in government, including many people involved in the legislative process, thought this was a question,” recalled David Gamage, a tax law professor at the University of California at Berkeley hired to help the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy implement the law. “Nobody thought the argument [limiting the subsidies] was persuasive.’’
Eric Talley quoted in Bloomberg Business, March 1, 2015
Most law schools matriculate roughly even numbers of men and women, he said, and the introductory corporations classes typically are 50 percent female. But those numbers change dramatically in more advanced corporate classes. … Talley … said it was “an awakening” when he realized that even his own advanced classes were only 40 percent female. “There’s some zeitgeist about M&A that is causing some who would love the field not to enter it.”
Jill Adams and Melissa Murray interviewed by Colorlines, February 27, 2015
“[The casebook] has the potential to enlighten a generation of legal thinkers and community leaders about how laws regarding sex, families and reproduction intersect with other areas of policy,” says Adams. “It could show how the struggle for reproductive justice is inextricably linked to efforts to … rework systems to meet the needs of marginalized communities and redistribute power.”
“The interest in controlling reproduction has been racialized almost from the start,” says Murray. “The earliest efforts to medicalize obstetrics and gynecology came from doctors who were experimenting on enslaved women. The criminalization of pregnancy has been laid out on the bodies of black women. There is a really racialized discourse in the effort to control reproduction and sexuality.”
Franklin Zimring writes for San Francisco Chronicle, February 27, 2015
The failure to collect and audit accurate information on killings by the police is a major scandal. 2015 should be the year when effective reporting of police use of fatal force becomes a practical reality. This will help reveal the high volume of chronic government violence that otherwise is disregarded as just the way things are.
Malcolm Feeley writes for The New York Times, February 26, 2015
The tremendous increase in quality of life arrests has increased the number of people being held for petty nonviolent offenses. In many jurisdictions, arrests on nonviolent misdemeanor charges have left more arrestees unable to post even low bail.