News

Several Duke Law faculty spoke last week about the current state of policing throughout the United States, with an emphasis on how policies and biases impact communities of color. Dean Kerry Abrams hosted the conversation with Brandon L. Garrett, the L. Neil Williams, Jr. Professor of Law and the Director of the Duke Center for Science […]

The federal government was set this week to carry out its first execution in nearly 17 years, but a U.S. District Court judge in Washington has intervened. Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to delay the executions of Daniel Lewis Lee, Wesley Ira Purkey, Dustin Lee Honken, and Keith Dwayne Nelson until […]

Gov. Roy Cooper has officially appointed the full 25-person Racial Equity in Criminal Justice Task Force, and the group will meet for the first time at 10 a.m. today. The Task Force will develop and help implement policy solutions to address systemic racial bias in criminal justice and submit legislative and municipal recommendations on or before […]

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a historic ruling protecting employees from being fired on the basis of their sexual orientation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The 6-3 opinion was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch and is considered a major victory for the LGBTQ community. Duke Law faculty shared […]

More than 300 law professors from across the country signed a letter last week calling on Congress to end qualified immunity and create vicarious liability for local government units when their officers violate people’s constitutional rights. As stated in the letter, a “qualified immunity” defense makes recovery against a police officer very difficult, even when the […]

by Ben Finholt, Director of the Just Sentencing Project at NCPLS and an Affiliated Fellow of the CSJ After Gov. Cooper declared a state of emergency based on the global COVID-19 pandemic, advocates immediately began calling for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (DPS) to reduce the number of people in prison. DPS responded […]

Yesterday, Judge Vinston Rozier, Jr. issued a Preliminary Injunction to the State of North Carolina, regarding COVID in prisons. Here is the Order:  20 CVS 500110 Order on PI with COS.  The Judge explained: “Thousands of these individuals in Defendants’ custody are elderly, have disabilities, or have underlying health conditions, making them particularly vulnerable to […]

In Mental Health Policy in the Era of COVID-19, a new piece in Psychiatric Services, Dr. Marvin Swartz and colleagues – all members of the Psychiatric Services Policy Advisory Group – describe: The response to the global COVID-19 pandemic has important ramifications for mental health systems and the patients they serve. This article describes significant changes […]