On September 2 nd , 2025, the United States carried out its first airstrike  against a Venezuelan vessel suspected of drug trafficking. Media reports  later alleged that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to “kill everyone,” prompting a second strike that killed two shipwrecked survivors. Subsequent congressional testimony disputed these allegations, but the strikes have nonetheless sparked intense legal scrutiny. Some members of Congress characterize th

The Sixth Amendment of the Constitution states that “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, an

Crime is down in America’s cities—or so our longstanding system for national crime reporting tells us. Claiming that those numbers lie, the Trump Administration  has deployed  swarms of federal agents and National Guardsmen to urban centers across the nation it claims are ravaged with crime. At the administration’s bidding, the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has launched an investigation  into the accuracy of Washington, D.C.’s crime statistics, whic

Sexually violent crimes are among the most psychologically devastating matters in the criminal legal system. Nearly every criminal law practitioner, whether defense, prosecution, or victim advocate, will eventually work with survivors of sexual abuse. Those who enter Special Victims Units may spend their entire careers navigating the intersection of law and trauma. Modern cases such as United States v. Epstein (2019)   reveal the consequences that arise when the criminal leg

These are privately owned and operated companies that perform genetic testing and ancestry matches with obscure policies on access to critical DNA information, including access for law enforcement matters without a warrant.

Data from the Innocence Project reveals that nearly a third of DNA exonerations involved false confessions.” “The threat of the ‘trial penalty’ can make pleading guilty seem like the only rational choice, even for someone who is innocent.” “When attorneys and judges approach confessions and pleas with skepticism, empathy, and a commitment to accuracy, the criminal legal system moves closer to its promise of justice for all.”

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