News

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 […]

In Jones v. Martinsburg, the Fourth Circuit remanded a case that the trial court had dismissed on qualified immunity grounds, beginning with this overview: “In 2013, Wayne Jones, a black man experiencing homelessness, was stopped by law enforcement in Martinsburg, West Virginia for walking alongside, rather than on, the sidewalk. By the end of this encounter, […]

Here is a YouTube link to the briefing – with colleagues Darrell Miller, Professor of Law and co-Director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, and Laura F. Edwards, Duke Professor of History.  

Today, the Center for Science and Justice joins the Policing Project at NYU Law, the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law,  the Innovative Policing Program at Georgetown Law School, the Criminal Justice Program, Vanderbilt University, and Center for Criminal Justice at the University of Virginia School of Law in a new report: Changing the Law to […]