Dan Moritz-Rabson

Pete hegseth sure is doing a lot of slam poetry considering how much the republicans make fun of liberal arts colleges

Ok but why did your carrots have glass in them

I wrote a very long report about how public defenders are constantly underfunded that delves into the ongoing debates within the legal community about how to ensure that people charged with crimes are offered high quality representation.

The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied. JUSTICE KAGAN would grant the petition for a writ of certiorari. JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, with whom JUSTICE JACKSON joins, dissenting from denial of certiorari. This case asks whether federal law prohibits the poorest prisoners from splitting the $350 fee required to file a federal lawsuit when it allows everyone else to do so. The answer statutorily appears to be no. Because the decision below held otherwise and deepened a split among the Courts of Appeals, the Court should grant the petition for a writ of certiorari.

Petitioners Topaz Johnson and Ian Henderson were incarcerated at High Desert State Prison in California when they filed this lawsuit in federal court. According to their complaint, corrections officers forced them and a third prisoner to stand in filthy cages that reeked of urine and measured 2.5 feet by 2.5 feet. They alleged that the officers forced them to stand in those cages for nearly nine hours with their hands cuffed behind their backs.

By a 6–3 vote, SCOTUS refuses to review a judge-made rule that bars indigent prisoners from splitting the filing fee among themselves when filing a federal suit—even though everyone else is allowed to split that fee. These defendants were allegedly tortured. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

thank you!

This report does a fantastic job of documenting a ridiculous crisis - there are only two ways out, arrest fewer people or hire more public defenders. Jdxs are going to have to do one or the other and continuing to drag their feet is only going to make the situation worse.

It appears I did not tag @galvinalmanza.bsky.social and @johnpfaff.bsky.social correctly in the initial thread. Both were incredibly helpful in producing this report.

As one leading scholar said "It’s not that we’re not willing to spend the money in the system. We’re not willing to spend the money on this one part of the system, which happens to be the constitutionalized right, the system that is designed to protect individual right"

But virtually all the people I talked to for this piece were clear: public defense has never been widely funded at levels that would guarantee that defendants are ensured proper representation.

(The report also includes short op-eds from @johnpfaff.bsky.social and Prof Bob Boruchowitz on whether decriminalization is an effective method of reducing public defenders' caseloads.)

Public defenders are trying a range of tactics to force legislatures to provide more money for public defense. SF's defender is refusing some cases. Some attorneys are calling for decriminalization. State ACLU chapters are constantly suing states, alleging Constitutional violations.

"Oftentimes, my client, their criminal case, isn’t even in the top 10 things that are most serious in their life" a public defender told me. PFJ staff help people navigate challenges -- like a looming eviction or restoration of a driver's license -- that allows attorneys to focus on the legal case.

@galvinalmanza.bsky.social's Partners for Justice is one prominent one. The organization worked with 20 public defense offices in 14 states last year to help people charged with crimes get access to social services and complete diversion programs that allow them to avoid incarceration.

The defense system isn't just about providing legal representation. Already overloaded public defense offices provide a slew of social resources to people charged with crimes. In recent years, public defender offices across the country have increasingly been implementing holistic defense services.

The pandemic made existing problems worse. Cases backed up as courts shut down. Many public defenders across the country left their jobs, while rising crime rates led to a slew of "tough on crime" policies that meant more people needed legal representation.

Due to high caseloads and low pay compared to other legal jobs, public defenders have high attrition rates. The work is grueling, and even when they're working outrageously long days, there are simply too many people who need attorneys to provide rapid representation to all of them.

This report is unlike many other pieces I've written. It's a broad overview of a system in crisis, rather than a bite-sized newsy story. Legislatures often won't provide more money for public defense until they're forced to by lawsuits. Clients wait for days, weeks, or even years to get a lawyer.

I wrote a very long report about how public defenders are constantly underfunded that delves into the ongoing debates within the legal community about how to ensure that people charged with crimes are offered high quality representation.

DHS's Office of Industry Partnership was hacked by a group called "Department of Peace" and info about ICE contracts with over 6,000 companies is now published on @ddosecrets.org ddosecrets.org/article/ice-...

the officers targeted by antifa bricks would like a word about these claims www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/n...

NYPD officers are supposed to be fired for lying. They aren’t. A report from LatinoJustice found that of the 181 New York City Police Department officers who were found to have lied to police watchdogs over the last decade, not one was fired.

are you suggesting these people might not always be truthful?

www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2022/...

are you implying the agency whose unions wrongly and confidently asserted its employees had been intentionally poisoned by shake shack in 2020 might be stretching the truth??

New details from Epstein files reveal Lutnick had years-long business tie with sex offender The commerce secretary apparently still hasn't come clean on his connection with Epstein.

New: Emails and documents from Epstein files reveal Howard Lutnick and his firm had a years-long business tie with the sex offender. The two were involved in a deal for at least six years, and an email shows "HWL" discussing the investment with Epstein in 2018.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

the administration officials forcing themselves on winning sports teams is just ultimate loser shit from people always whining about "participation trophies"

“I Have Lost Everything”: The Toll of Cities’ Homeless Sweeps Cities often take belongings — including important documents and irreplaceable mementos — when they conduct sweeps of homeless encampments. ProPublica gave notecards to people across the country so th...

We asked people who lived in homeless encampments that were cleared out in city “sweeps” to write about what object was the hardest for them to lose.

“They took my baby pictures and my moms obituaries,” a man in California wrote.

(Published Dec. 2024)

Mia Valentina Paz Faria A 7-year-old from Venezuela who was living in Austin, Texas Detained for 70 days “I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

UPDATE: Staff at the ICE concentration camp in Dilley, Texas have begun raiding the dormitories of kids and their parents to confiscate and destroy letters from the children. This is in response to the ace reporting by @micarosenberg et al for ProPublica:

“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

- 7 year old imprisoned by ICE for 70 days in a concentration camp in Texas.

Today, after @propublica.org published this story, the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children.

www.propublica.org/article/ice-...

Two-month-old baby 'choking on his own vomit' while detained in Dilley 'His life is in danger,' U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said about newborn Juan Nicolás. The child fell ill after spending almost a month — or half his life — in a San Antonio-area family detention facility...

‘His life is in danger,’ U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said about newborn Juan Nicolás. The child fell ill after spending almost a month — or half his life — in a San Antonio-area family detention facility.

This is a pogrom

"But while the odds are somewhat against a serious reckoning with the brutality and wrongdoing of Trump’s mass deportation effort, it does not have to be true of the atrocities of ICE and the Border Patrol. If it is, it is because we made it so."

Briton shot by father in Texas after row about Trump was unlawfully killed, coroner rules Lucy Harrison died after being shot in chest by alcoholic Kris Harrison while staying at his home in US last year

Drink man shoots and kills daughter after getting into an argument about Trump and saying he wouldn’t mind if she was sexually assaulted because he has other daughters. No charges brought.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...