Well-meaning people are frustrated that they're not all in jail.

Now that I had some chocolate, let me tell you about conveyor belts versus obstacle courses.

It could also be called: criminal law from the perspective of a defense lawyer.

1/
This is from a book I published in 2014, so it's dated, but I have it handy⤵️

Americans are in love with prison.

Without going into details, our modern police and prison system picked up where slavery left off. "Law and order" meant putting the poor and minorities in jail.

2/
The 13th Amendment (abolishing slavery) has a loophole. Forced labor is legal after a person has been duly convicted of a crime.

Initially, it was easy: Beat a "confession" out of Black man, convict him with an all-White jury, and put him into a chain gang.

3/
Then, people like Thurgood Marshall dedicated their lives to improving the system, so things got better.

When I started as a defense lawyer, the idea was to create obstacles and make it harder to put people in jail.

We wanted an obstacle course.

4/
The opposing idea was a conveyor belt: From suspicion to arrest to conviction as quickly as possible.

For most of my professional life, liberals were on the side of the obstacle course.

I can't get used to liberals now demanding a conveyor belt.

5/
People say, "They do it, so we should, too."

I maintain that the statement, "They do it, so we should do" is morally bankrupt.

If what "they" do is wrong, why should we want to imitate it?

Right?

6/

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More from @Teri_Kanefield

Jan 30
This is how he will create the narrative that any prosecution is political. For Trump, the truth doesn’t matter. What matters is that enough people believe it.
This defense won't matter in court, but Trump always loses in court.

He will create the narrative which the entire right-wing will believe.

People need to understand what is coming.
The idea that prosecuting Trump will put an end to the threat of right-wing fascism in America is pure fantasy.

That fantasy now takes the shape of "if he had been prosecuted sooner none of this would be happening."

The same people said, "Impeach him to end this nonsense!" Image
Read 7 tweets
Jan 29
What we're up against: I just tore a sign off the traffic light near my house that said this ⤵️

It's easy to come up with catchy and appealing slogans when you're not worried about truth and you are targeting people who resist nuance. Image
Yes, the right-wing kooks in my neighborhood put stickers on public property.

I do my public duty by tearing them down.
The owner of a business in my area put up a sign that said she was having trouble hiring people because of Biden's socialist handouts. I asked her whether she offers benefits and a good wage. The conversation didn't go well after that.
Read 5 tweets
Jan 26
Thanks, @kyledcheney

Here's the 16-page ruling. (Yesterday, the judge released a 2-page advance notice)

politico.com/f/?id=0000017e…

I wouldn't want to be John Eastman right now.
Despite the lack of evidence of fraud, a significant portion of the population came to believe the election was tainted by fraud.

I wonder how that happened! 🤔

(Sarcasm. I know how it happened, as so does the judge.)
In addition to Trump (and a few others) Eastman also represented clients who he wouldn't name because he said their identity was privileged.

What?!

The privilege doesn't protect client identies except in rare circumstanes. (Hmm. I'll have to think more about what that means.)
Read 17 tweets
Jan 25
I think what the mermaid🧜‍♀️ is saying is that we end up giving huge platforms to people who are (and always have been) reactionaries and regressives simply because they dislike Trump.

People on the left like seeing attacks on Trump, so they retweet and follow.
Related: Some accounts grew large because they were good at attacking Trump. But some don't know how to do anything except attack, so they turn their attacks on the Democrats.

Similarly, Republicans are good at being an opposition party. They can attack but can't build.
Don't get me wrong. We need to work with the Republicans who are opposed to Trump. They are our partners in beating back the extremist element of the party.

And many former Republicans now truly embrace democracy.

Others may be right about Trump, and wrong about much else. ⤵️
Read 4 tweets
Jan 25
In John Eastman's application for TRO fighting the Jan6 committee's subpoena, he argued that (1) the committee lacked authority to issue the subpoena, and that the subpoena violated his 1st and 4th Amendment rights.

As expected, he lost.

1/
politico.com/f/?id=0000017e…
Now Eastman is supposed to work on a privilege log, presumably because he's claiming attorney-client privilege over some of the documents.

He also raised a 5th Amendment argument, but claiming the 5th wouldn't prevent him from working with the committee.

2/
Temporary restraining order.

(I typed it out, but Twitter told me I had too many characters!)

This ruling matters because courts are rejecting the claim that this committee is illegitimate. . .


3/
Read 5 tweets
Jan 24
I saw Hunter trending, and I came to see if Hunter Biden is trying to start a war with Russia.

There is nothing he won't do🤷‍♀️

(sarcasm)
I tried to invent the most preposterous thing I could think of . . . but Jr. thought of it first.

Read 4 tweets

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