Tag: Courts

Why Are Crime Victims the Only People We Force to Trust the State? | Cato at Liberty Blog

Last week, I blogged in support of reviving private criminal prosecutions. The state’s monopoly on bringing criminal charges arose late historically and prosecutors have often failed to show victims the responsiveness they deserve. My piece quickly met with pushback, especially from libertarians concerned about expanding the criminal legal system’s overreach and coercion using the guise of victims’ rights. I write again to offer a clarification, a qualification, and a challenge.
— Read on www.cato.org/blog/victims-rights-private-prosecutors-responding-critics

INVESTIGATION: 70% of Shreveport’s accused killers have prior arrest records | Louisiana |

(The Center Square) – The killers struck just before 4 a.m., spraying a family’s apartment unit with bullets. For two men facing murder charges, their criminal careers on the streets
— Read on www.thecentersquare.com/louisiana/article_f68799d4-75b4-4f59-b2b7-20450245aa88.html

Two Judges on the Sixth Circuit Determine that a Man Reaching for a Holstered Weapon was Not a Threat – Objectively Reasonable

We hold that police officers with probable cause to search a car may inspect passengers’ belongings found in the car that are capable of concealing the object of the search.
— Read on www.objectivelyreasonable.com/2025/12/26/two-judges-on-the-sixth-circuit-determine-that-a-man-reaching-for-a-holstered-weapon-was-not-a-threatis-wearing-a-full-face-ski-mask-in-the-month-of-may-during-the-day-in-a-high-crime-neighborhood-sus/

Get the copy of the Court Decision HERE

‘We helped each other. We taught each other the law.’ | The Lens

In 1983, to help fight the wrongful charge, Calvin Duncan began to teach himself the law, while being held within the Orleans Parish Prison in New Orleans. In his new book The Jailhouse Lawyer, co-written by Sophie Cull, he writes about that time in his life:
— Read on thelensnola.org/2025/07/08/we-helped-each-other-we-taught-each-other-the-law/

Let’s Empower Jurors to Halt an Injustice | Cato Institute

But that could just as easily have come from President Donald Trump. Through a series of flagrantly unconstitutional executive orders, Trump has sought to silence the opposition. This culminated with an executive order demanding that the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security investigate former administration officials who pushed back against Trump’s frivolous claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

The Framers understood the danger of a despotic regime and regarded the criminal jury trial as a key procedural safeguard to help ensure that only those acts and individuals society deemed truly culpable result in criminal punishment. This is of particular importance today — in a nation plagued by rampant overcriminalization and coercive plea bargaining — where often all that stands between us and a criminal record is a prosecutor’s decision to charge.
— Read on www.cato.org/commentary/lets-empower-jurors-halt-injustice