THREAD: In January, I argued a case before the California Supreme Court. The question was: is it illegal in the United States for a human being to be caged and separated from their family prior to trial solely because they lack cash, even though they are presumed innocent?
Think about how easy this legal question should be. It is easy for people like my grandmother--she got to listen to the oral argument online and immediately thought we won the case because she believes that it's wrong to put someone in a cage because they are poor.
And yet, wealth-based human caging is so normalized (and beneficial) for prosecutors, judges, and wealthy bureaucratic interests that our civilization is still pretending to argue about this issue in its highest courts as if it's a serious intellectual question.
People go to law school and are taught to unlearn some of the basic things that make us human and that tie our lives to other human beings.
There are about 400,000 humans in U.S. cages right now, many separated from children and facing rampant physical/sexual assault, solitary confinement, infectious disease, no sunlight, fresh air, exercise, nutritious food, medical care, and more horrors. A judge approved each one.
Much of our work @CivRightsCorps has for years toiled with an even more basic question: getting judges to agree to even hear this simple issue on the merits because our legal system has concocted a wide range of doctrines to prevent itself from doing even the most basic justice.
In May, I argued a similar case in the 5th Circuit appeals court, whose ruling would decide the legality of wealth-based pretrial jailing across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. We won after many years in CA, but we don't yet know what will happen in the new case, or many more.
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