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John Pfaff Profile picture
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12 Jan, 3 tweets, 1 min read
This is absolutely crazy, that the Capitol Police fear that some members of Congress may try to assassinate Biden.
The overall nature of the plots, and what the police are doing to prepare, are terrifying too. As is the general sense that the administration might not do much to stop it.

If you saw this anywhere else in the world, what would you think about that country's democracy?
The Republicans are yelling that impeaching Trump would be divisive, while Capitol Police are afraid some of their elected officials might try to kill the President.

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John Pfaff Profile picture
11 Jan
I'd like to second, third, and fourth this.

Every time I argue that less-harsh sentences are the better ones that all should receive, I hear this: "leniency for all requires severity for all first."

This strikes me as a complete miscomprehension of the politics of punishment.
Once you pass a harsh law, it's really hard to be That Guy who repeals it.

It's also why I think we should emphasize leniency when DAs set plea deals over expanding parole.* It's easier to set a shorter sentence up front than shorten a long one.
When Obama commuted Chelsea Mannings sentence, there was a lot of outrage.

But it was fascinating outrage. No one that I saw said "7 years is too short." Everyone said "1/3 of her 21 years is too short."

If the orig sentence had been 8 yrs, bet far far less outrage.
Read 9 tweets
John Pfaff Profile picture
11 Jan
"Our party egged people on to storm the Capitol, murder a police officer, and appear to have ensured that the Capitol was under-protected in an effort to overturn a legitimate election.

You've... pointed that out. And demanded accountability.

So who is REALLY at fault here?"
This would be pathetic, if it weren't such clear evidence that the GOP not only have learned nothing from this, but is doubling down on its culture of right-wing victimhood.

It's just going to keep getting worse.

But seriously: this is disgusting and pathetic--and dangerous.
And again: I don't want to hear any GOPers talk about the need to "take personal responsibility" ever again.

Having stoked an insurrection, they now equate demands for accountability with "playing politics."

Such bald (and yes, unsurprising) hypocrisy.
Read 4 tweets
John Pfaff Profile picture
8 Oct 20
So this disability q is fantastic. The 25A and the Presidential Succession Act do not define "disability" and provide no method for automatically removing authority from an unwilling President.

Pence was a total coward for not answering.

Tho we know the answer.

#VPDebate
Trump will never voluntarily concede authority to any VP.

The 25A says that the VP and the cabinet can take authority, but only until POTUS writes a letter saying he's good. Which Trump would do instantly.

At that point, takes 2/3 House and Senate to put VP back in charge.
In short, neither the Constitution nor the Presidential Succession Act are remotely prepared for a Mad King scenario.

Even when POTUS is on a drug known for delusions and views of grandeur, we have no way to make the President step down/step back.
Read 4 tweets
John Pfaff Profile picture
7 Oct 20
We should stop calling it "Court Packing" and instead call it the "Court Modernization Act."

Which, to be fair, it is. Does it make sense to keep running SCOTUS the exact same way we did before penicillin, the car, the computer, pretty much all of modern life?
Expand the Court, and set it at an even number (which is Originalist too, since the first Court had six).

And professionalize it too. Nothing in the Constitution requires the Justices' only real assistants to be recent law school graduates.
If you think abt it, the current design is utterly bonkers (sorry, many of my colleagues; but it is).

We call on Justices to decide antirust one day, crim justice the next, employment law then the history of gun ownership after that.

Aided by 4 20-something legal generalists.
Read 5 tweets
John Pfaff Profile picture
6 Oct 20
Wait, when I applied to clerk, back in the summer/fall of 2001, this was the basic (if new) rule. Guess it quickly fell apart?
Which reminds me: I had a judge email me the afternoon (!!) of 9/11/01 to say he was grounded in Chicago and could just interview me then. And I said yes, bc... young, and you “don’t say no”! And so I sat in a hotel bar, watching the towers fall on repeat and just... it went bad.
With hindsight, I mean... who emails a law student to conduct an interview bc he might as well, given he’s grounded due to a national catastrophe we are STILL working thru.

He looked out the hotel window. I looked at the bar, and thus at the TVs. It was surreal. And wrong.
Read 4 tweets
John Pfaff Profile picture
28 Sep 20
It's hard to care right now for a lot of reasons, but:

The 2019 Uniform Crime Reports just posted.

The takeaway:

• Murder up baaaarely--by 0.3% (51 cases)
• Rape (-3%) and robbery (-5%) down
• Agg assault up--by 1%

• All prop crimes down, tot pop down 4%.
Of course, these stats are:

• Pre-COVID
• Pre-lockdowns (formal and unofficial)
• Pre-Floyd protests, pre-"Defund"-going-national

They are a picture of a past that has little bearing, it seems, on the present.
I tried to see if any improvements happened with clearance rates (percent of reported crimes ending in arrest), but no data there yet.
Read 23 tweets

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