Balls & Strikes

@ballsandstrikes.org

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A nonprofit media outlet for progressive, bullshit-free commentary about courts, judges, and the legal system they uphold. Run by @jaywillis.net.

Link to: Trump DOJ: Yale’s Medical School Has Way Too Many Black Students Trump DOJ: Yale’s Medical School Has Way Too Many Black Students By Madiba K. Dennie Law & Politics Affirmative Action Read More Link to: The Trump DOJ’s Latest Stunt Is Using Your Tax Dollars to Make January 6 Rioters Rich The Trump DOJ’s Latest Stunt Is Using Your Tax Dollars to Make January 6 Rioters Rich By Jay Willis Law & Politics Justice Department Link to: DOJ Used To Fight Public Corruption. Now, It’s Facilitating Public Corruption Instead DOJ Used To Fight Public Corruption. Now, It’s Facilitating Public Corruption Instead By Madiba K. Dennie Law & Politics Justice Department Anchor link for Newsletter section Newsletter Link to: Read More Trump DOJ Lawyer Correctly Describes Congress’s History of Circumcising Presidential Power By Jay Willis During oral argument in the cases about Trump’s executive orders targeting law firms, a Justice Department lawyer brought up a very different form of severability. Read More
For most prospective lawyers, the path to licensure is both arduous and relatively straightforward: spend three years in law school, cram for a two-day-long bar exam, submit an application for licensure, and, if all goes well, attend a swearing-in ceremony. However, the story can be very different for those who have a criminal conviction, an eviction, a civil judgement against them, mental health disabilities, or financial issues. Such was the case for one applicant, Jessica Younts, who had a felony drug conviction. After completing her sentence and attending law school, she applied for licensure in New York. Instead of breezing through the process like many of her peers, she endured what can only be described as a hazing ritual: Bar officials subjected her to multiple hostile interviews that interrogated aspects of her life wholly unconnected to the practice of law, such as whether all her children had the same father. She was even asked probing questions about her arrest, requiring her to recount specific details of that day, which essentially relitigated her already-adjudicated criminal matter. As a result, a process that takes most law school graduates a few months took Jessica four years—and in the end, she was still denied.
The second (and more troubling) trend is that Obergefell v. Hodges, the now decade-old Supreme Court decision recognizing a right to same-sex marriage, is squarely in the judiciary’s crosshairs. Several nominees were asked whether cases like Brown v. Board of Education, which held school segregation unconstitutional, and Loving v. Virginia, which struck down bans on interracial marriage, were correctly decided, and all agreed that they were. But when asked if the same was true of Obergefell, they all demurred. Tung said only that “the Supreme Court granted such a right.” Mercer described it as “binding precedent,” but said it wasn’t his job to “grade the Supreme Court.” The implication of their careful treatment of Obergefell was clear to anyone listening: These nominees, like those during Trump’s first term who described Roe and Casey as “the law of the land” and “precedent on precedent,” are foaming at the mouth to undermine and eventually overturn Obergefell and relegate same-sex couples to second class status.
trump holding up executive order
screenshot of the CJ McCollum "Im trying Jennifer" tweet