ABSTRACT Qualified immunity has captured popular attention in the wake of multiple high-profile killings of civilians by police due to its role in shielding officers and other public officials from legal accountability for constitutional rights violations if the specific conduct at issue has not previously been held unconstitutional. Since creating the doctrine in 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court has...
Abolishing Racist Policing With the Thirteenth Amendment
This Essay is also forthcoming in our print edition. Abstract Policing in America has always been about controlling the Black body. Indeed, modern policing was birthed and nurtured by white supremacy; its roots are found in slavery. Policing today continues to protect and serve the racial hierarchy blessed by the Constitution itself. But a string of U.S. Supreme Court rulings involving the...
Class Actions as a Check on LAPD: What Has Worked and What Has Not
Abstract This Comment analyzes class actions brought against the Los Angeles Police Department to examine how effective class actions are as a tool for reforming police practices, and how they can be improved. To determine the effectiveness of class actions, I compare the remedies obtained in class actions to the claims brought in later cases with similar facts; specifically, I focus on whether...
Big Data Prosecution and Brady
As helpful as new forms of centralized data collection might be for investigators, there remains a critical open issue: the systems were not designed to identify the exculpatory and impeaching material prosecutors are required to disclose under Brady v. Maryland. This Article is the first to examine the design flaw at the core of the intelligence-driven prosecution model – a flaw that creates a...