The Supreme Court effectively greenlit the criminalization of homelessness in its decision in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson , where the Court upheld Oregon’s anti-camping ordinance. This decision comes at a time when the homeless population in the United States is at an all-time high, reaching a record 771,480 people in 2024, an 18% increase from 2023. This increase, largely driven by the United States’ affordability crisis, has spurred an alarming discourse about e

The development of the federal sentencing guidelines  played an important role in shaping America’s criminal legal system. In 1984, Congress passed the Sentencing Reform Act  which established the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The Sentencing Commission’s primary purpose was to reduce disparities in federal sentencing. To address these disparities, the Commission would ask judges to consider a variety of factors  in their rulings including the nature of the offense committed, th

Media coverage in high-profile criminal cases is a multifaceted issue with several consequences – some good and some bad. This leads to the phenomenon known as “ pretrial publicity ” where potential jurors are exposed to the case and may consequently form biases. This issue illustrates the Constitutional conflict  between a defendant’s right to a fair trial (Sixth Amendment) and the media’s right to freedom of press (First Amendment). These two rights are most likely to clash

There are many major cities within the United States that signal alarmingly high rates of human trafficking, but the city of Atlanta, Georgia in has been designated as a major trafficking hub for more than twenty years now.  Atlanta is a major transportation hub for trafficking young girls from Mexico and is one of the top three U.S. cities with the highest levels of child sex trafficking. Atlanta has had the nation’s largest sex trade between 2003 and 2007 – generating $290