George Lavender is an award-winning independent radio and print journalist. His reporting has aired on NPR, WBUR, KQED, KCRW, and Radio France International.
What You Need to Know about the Supreme Court and Its Latest Nominee
How the Money Bail System Works and Why Some Say It Isn't Fair
EXPLAINER: How the Supreme Court Works and Why Picking A New Justice Is Such A Battle
Presidential Clemency Explained: Why Obama Just Gave 46 Drug Offenders A Ticket Out of Prison
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/dZFctv9efPQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With his characteristic showmanship on full display, President Trump waited for prime time on Jan. 31 to reveal Judge Neil Gorsuch as his nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In doing so, Trump fulfilled a key campaign promise to nominate a staunch conservative to the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If confirmed, Gorsuch, 49, would replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative icon who died unexpectedly in February after three decades on the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scalia's seat has been empty for nearly a year now, the result of a controversial and unprecedented move by Senate Republican leaders to block President Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland. Republicans argued that a nominee shouldn't be considered during an election year and blocked Garland from receiving so much as a hearing. Since then, the court has operated as an eight-member body (with any 4-4 ties upholding decisions made in the lower appeals courts).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gorsuch currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, and closely resembles Scalia in both political ideology and judicial philosophy. Like Scalia -- who adamantly opposed gay marriage, abortion, affirmative action, gun control and government regulation -- he is deeply conservative and known for his \"originalist\" perspective on the Constitution as a “dead” document to be interpreted the way the Founders originally intended when they drafted it more than 200 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Gorsuch would be the youngest justice on the high court and would be expected to once again give it a conservative majority .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"story-body-text story-content\">\u003cem>Two random facts: \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"story-body-text story-content\">\u003cem>1. If Gorsuch gets the gig, he'll be working alongside his former boss, Justice Anthony Kennedy, whom he clerked for. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"story-body-text story-content\">\u003cem>2. At Harvard Law School, Gorsuch was classmates with a guy by the name of Barack Obama.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"story-body-text story-content\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-supreme-court-gorsuch-234471\" target=\"_blank\">As a federal judge\u003c/a>, Gorsuch was a staunch defender of religious liberty and consistently wary of federal regulations. It's expected that his decisions on Supreme Court cases will be ideologically consistent with those made by Scalia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"story-body-text story-content\">\"They really are incredibly similar in their approaches,\" Tom Goldstein, publisher of SCOTUSblog, \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/2017/02/01/512906634/scotusblog-co-founder-gorsuch-to-have-immediate-impact-on-court\" target=\"_blank\">recently told NPR\u003c/a>. \"Gorsuch does seem almost to have modeled himself on Scalia across one area after another.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There's also a good chance that he will find himself in the awkward position of having to rule on the legality of one or more controversial executive actions made by the man who appointed him. Trump's recent executive order to temporarily block refugees from entering the United States and ban travel from seven Muslim-majority countries has already provoked a storm of litigation and is likely to be the first (of potentially many) of the president's actions to be challenged in the high court.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>So what happens now?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>In a standard confirmation process, the president’s nominee must first testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. If given the green light, the nominee is considered by the full Senate, where a 60-vote threshold is required to overcome a \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/a-confirmation-battle-brews-in-the-senate/515298/\" target=\"_blank\">filibuster\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But things in Washington right now are anything but standard. The current relationship between Democrats and Republicans is pretty toxic, with Democrats still seething over the treatment of Garland, Obama's nominee, who Republicans stonewalled for nearly a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So some kind of showdown is pretty inevitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's still unclear, though, what Democrats will do and how much leverage they have. Although in the minority, there are enough of them in the Senate (48 Democrats; 52 Republicans) to block the 60-vote supermajority needed to confirm a Supreme Court justice. If that were to happen, though, Republicans could strike back and try to invoke the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/21/politics/nuclear-option-explainer/\">\"nuclear option,\"\u003c/a> a funky maneuver that scraps the existing rules and requires only a simple majority of 51 votes to confirm the nominee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bottom line: It might take a while and it's not going to be pretty, but Gorsuch is pretty likely to be confirmed as the next U.S. Supreme Court justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interestingly, despite Scalia's deeply conservative views, he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 1986, after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan. But the nominating process today is far more politically divisive than it used to be. In fact, until now, the Senate had never in its entire history taken longer than \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/13/us/how-long-does-it-take-to-confirm-a-supreme-court-nominee.html\" target=\"_blank\">125 days\u003c/a> to vote on a nominee.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Why is this particular nomination such a big deal?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>The judiciary is intended to be a nonpartisan branch of government, but reality suggests otherwise; the Supreme Court is sharply divided along partisan lines. Of the eight justices on the court today, four lean pretty consistently to the right (John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas and, to a slightly less predictable extent, Anthony Kennedy), and the other four, pretty consistently to the left (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer). Scalia was a reliable vote for conservative causes, one of the five justices who tipped the balance of the court to the right. Gorsuch is expected to stay the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garland, on the other hand, would have likely shifted the balance back to the left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, we’re talking about a lifetime appointment. It means that a young nominee like Gorsuch is likely to serve on the court for quite a long time, influencing domestic affairs for generations, long after Trump leaves office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raising the stakes even more, several justices on the court are getting up there in years and probably won't be around for too much longer. Justice Kennedy is 80 and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 83. That means another appointment -- or set of appointments -- is likely to happen fairly soon (although how soon is anyone's guess), a move that could significantly alter the current makeup of the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Do presidents always pick nominees who share their politics?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS-e1486054825344.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21270\">\u003cimg class=\"alignright wp-image-21270 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS.png\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS.png 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS-400x300.png 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS-800x600.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS-768x576.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\">\u003c/a>Usually (wouldn’t you?). There are, however, some notable exceptions, including justices who have shifted positions during their time on the court, much to the chagrin of the presidents who appointed them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Dwight Eisenhower, for instance, once referred to his appointment of Chief Justice Earl Warren as “the biggest damn fool mistake I ever made.\" Likewise, Justice David Souter was far more left-leaning on the bench than ever anticipated by President George H. W. Bush, who appointed him in 1990.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Is the court's political divide all that unusual?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>To some extent, yes. Although most judges aren't elected or considered \"politicians,\" you'd be hard pressed to find a judge whose legal decisions aren't influenced by his or her political beliefs. As such, there have always been partisan divides on the Supreme Court. But in recent years, the political polarization has intensified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2432111\">William and Mary Law School study\u003c/a> found that since 1990 there has been a “dramatic increase in the ideological gap between Democratic and Republican appointees.” As a result, it notes, “presidential elections will matter more to Court decision-making than they ever have in this nation’s history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The divide extends to the justice’s law clerks, who play a crucial role in both selecting the cases the court chooses to hear and influencing the rulings their bosses make. Justices have historically sought clerks who, to some extent, reflect a range of political views. But as the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/us/politics/07clerks.html?pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\">New York Times\u003c/a> reported in 2010: “These days the more conservative justices are much more likely than were their predecessors to hire clerks who worked for judges appointed by Republicans. And the more liberal justices are more likely than in the past to hire from judges appointed by Democrats.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/8C0weq6CzqM\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Who can be a Supreme Court justice?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Anyone! The Constitution doesn’t actually spell out any guidelines on age or education level (although you wouldn’t know it looking at the resumes of the current justices, all of whom attended law school at either Harvard or Yale). Nominees don't need to have judicial experience. Heck, they don't even need law degrees. And unlike the presidency, there is no requirement to be a “natural-born” citizen. In fact, foreign-born justices have been \u003ca href=\"http://www.supremecourt.gov/faq_justices.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">appointed six times\u003c/a> throughout the court’s history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even former presidents can be on the court: President William Howard Taft was appointed chief justice in 1921, nearly a decade after his presidency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So maybe a Justice Obama or a Justice Trump someday? I wouldn't hold your breath.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>How many cases does the court hear each year, and how does it decide which ones to take?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Again, much of the work is done by law clerks. Each term, they pour through upward of 8,000 requests, called a petition for a writ of certiorari (or a \"cert. petition\"). These are brought by the petitioners, who have already exhausted all appeals in federal and state courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Except on very rare occasions, the court considers only cases that have gone up the federal judicial system food chain: usually starting in a district court and then going to an appellate court. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, the final step on the legal ladder. Its decision is law, one that can't be appealed to any other court. (For a more thorough procedural overview, see the \u003ca href=\"http://www.scotusblog.com/reference/educational-resources/supreme-court-procedure/\" target=\"_blank\">SCOTUS Blog\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The clerks recommend which appeals their justices should consider or overlook, and the justices then vote. Four of nine justices have to agree to take a case and hear oral arguments. This is called “granting certiorari.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only a tiny percentage of those thousands of appeals actually see the light of day. The court now accepts about 80 cases a term, hearing oral arguments between October and April. In that respect, the court's less publicized decisions to NOT a hear a case are often as consequential (in that it upholds the decision of the lower court).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The petitioner and respondent usually appear in court for an hour-long session, during which they're pelted with questions from the nine justices (although Justice Clarence Thomas very rarely utters a word).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The justices then meet privately to vote on the decision. Unless the decision is unanimous, a justice from either side is selected to write the majority and dissenting opinions. Later in the term, the court announces -- or hands down -- its decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/7sualy8OiKk\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scalia's seat has been empty for nearly a year now, the result of a controversial and unprecedented move by Senate Republican leaders to block President Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland. Republicans argued that a nominee shouldn't be considered during an election year and blocked Garland from receiving so much as a hearing. Since then, the court has operated as an eight-member body (with any 4-4 ties upholding decisions made in the lower appeals courts).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gorsuch currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, and closely resembles Scalia in both political ideology and judicial philosophy. Like Scalia -- who adamantly opposed gay marriage, abortion, affirmative action, gun control and government regulation -- he is deeply conservative and known for his \"originalist\" perspective on the Constitution as a “dead” document to be interpreted the way the Founders originally intended when they drafted it more than 200 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Gorsuch would be the youngest justice on the high court and would be expected to once again give it a conservative majority .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"story-body-text story-content\">\u003cem>Two random facts: \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"story-body-text story-content\">\u003cem>1. If Gorsuch gets the gig, he'll be working alongside his former boss, Justice Anthony Kennedy, whom he clerked for. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"story-body-text story-content\">\u003cem>2. At Harvard Law School, Gorsuch was classmates with a guy by the name of Barack Obama.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"story-body-text story-content\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-supreme-court-gorsuch-234471\" target=\"_blank\">As a federal judge\u003c/a>, Gorsuch was a staunch defender of religious liberty and consistently wary of federal regulations. It's expected that his decisions on Supreme Court cases will be ideologically consistent with those made by Scalia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"story-body-text story-content\">\"They really are incredibly similar in their approaches,\" Tom Goldstein, publisher of SCOTUSblog, \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/2017/02/01/512906634/scotusblog-co-founder-gorsuch-to-have-immediate-impact-on-court\" target=\"_blank\">recently told NPR\u003c/a>. \"Gorsuch does seem almost to have modeled himself on Scalia across one area after another.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There's also a good chance that he will find himself in the awkward position of having to rule on the legality of one or more controversial executive actions made by the man who appointed him. Trump's recent executive order to temporarily block refugees from entering the United States and ban travel from seven Muslim-majority countries has already provoked a storm of litigation and is likely to be the first (of potentially many) of the president's actions to be challenged in the high court.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>So what happens now?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>In a standard confirmation process, the president’s nominee must first testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. If given the green light, the nominee is considered by the full Senate, where a 60-vote threshold is required to overcome a \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/a-confirmation-battle-brews-in-the-senate/515298/\" target=\"_blank\">filibuster\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But things in Washington right now are anything but standard. The current relationship between Democrats and Republicans is pretty toxic, with Democrats still seething over the treatment of Garland, Obama's nominee, who Republicans stonewalled for nearly a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So some kind of showdown is pretty inevitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's still unclear, though, what Democrats will do and how much leverage they have. Although in the minority, there are enough of them in the Senate (48 Democrats; 52 Republicans) to block the 60-vote supermajority needed to confirm a Supreme Court justice. If that were to happen, though, Republicans could strike back and try to invoke the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/21/politics/nuclear-option-explainer/\">\"nuclear option,\"\u003c/a> a funky maneuver that scraps the existing rules and requires only a simple majority of 51 votes to confirm the nominee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bottom line: It might take a while and it's not going to be pretty, but Gorsuch is pretty likely to be confirmed as the next U.S. Supreme Court justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interestingly, despite Scalia's deeply conservative views, he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 1986, after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan. But the nominating process today is far more politically divisive than it used to be. In fact, until now, the Senate had never in its entire history taken longer than \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/13/us/how-long-does-it-take-to-confirm-a-supreme-court-nominee.html\" target=\"_blank\">125 days\u003c/a> to vote on a nominee.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Why is this particular nomination such a big deal?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>The judiciary is intended to be a nonpartisan branch of government, but reality suggests otherwise; the Supreme Court is sharply divided along partisan lines. Of the eight justices on the court today, four lean pretty consistently to the right (John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas and, to a slightly less predictable extent, Anthony Kennedy), and the other four, pretty consistently to the left (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer). Scalia was a reliable vote for conservative causes, one of the five justices who tipped the balance of the court to the right. Gorsuch is expected to stay the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garland, on the other hand, would have likely shifted the balance back to the left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, we’re talking about a lifetime appointment. It means that a young nominee like Gorsuch is likely to serve on the court for quite a long time, influencing domestic affairs for generations, long after Trump leaves office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raising the stakes even more, several justices on the court are getting up there in years and probably won't be around for too much longer. Justice Kennedy is 80 and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 83. That means another appointment -- or set of appointments -- is likely to happen fairly soon (although how soon is anyone's guess), a move that could significantly alter the current makeup of the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Do presidents always pick nominees who share their politics?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS-e1486054825344.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21270\">\u003cimg class=\"alignright wp-image-21270 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS.png\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS.png 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS-400x300.png 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS-800x600.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS-768x576.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\">\u003c/a>Usually (wouldn’t you?). There are, however, some notable exceptions, including justices who have shifted positions during their time on the court, much to the chagrin of the presidents who appointed them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Dwight Eisenhower, for instance, once referred to his appointment of Chief Justice Earl Warren as “the biggest damn fool mistake I ever made.\" Likewise, Justice David Souter was far more left-leaning on the bench than ever anticipated by President George H. W. Bush, who appointed him in 1990.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Is the court's political divide all that unusual?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>To some extent, yes. Although most judges aren't elected or considered \"politicians,\" you'd be hard pressed to find a judge whose legal decisions aren't influenced by his or her political beliefs. As such, there have always been partisan divides on the Supreme Court. But in recent years, the political polarization has intensified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2432111\">William and Mary Law School study\u003c/a> found that since 1990 there has been a “dramatic increase in the ideological gap between Democratic and Republican appointees.” As a result, it notes, “presidential elections will matter more to Court decision-making than they ever have in this nation’s history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The divide extends to the justice’s law clerks, who play a crucial role in both selecting the cases the court chooses to hear and influencing the rulings their bosses make. Justices have historically sought clerks who, to some extent, reflect a range of political views. But as the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/us/politics/07clerks.html?pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\">New York Times\u003c/a> reported in 2010: “These days the more conservative justices are much more likely than were their predecessors to hire clerks who worked for judges appointed by Republicans. And the more liberal justices are more likely than in the past to hire from judges appointed by Democrats.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/8C0weq6CzqM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/8C0weq6CzqM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch4>Who can be a Supreme Court justice?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Anyone! The Constitution doesn’t actually spell out any guidelines on age or education level (although you wouldn’t know it looking at the resumes of the current justices, all of whom attended law school at either Harvard or Yale). Nominees don't need to have judicial experience. Heck, they don't even need law degrees. And unlike the presidency, there is no requirement to be a “natural-born” citizen. In fact, foreign-born justices have been \u003ca href=\"http://www.supremecourt.gov/faq_justices.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">appointed six times\u003c/a> throughout the court’s history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even former presidents can be on the court: President William Howard Taft was appointed chief justice in 1921, nearly a decade after his presidency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So maybe a Justice Obama or a Justice Trump someday? I wouldn't hold your breath.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>How many cases does the court hear each year, and how does it decide which ones to take?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Again, much of the work is done by law clerks. Each term, they pour through upward of 8,000 requests, called a petition for a writ of certiorari (or a \"cert. petition\"). These are brought by the petitioners, who have already exhausted all appeals in federal and state courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Except on very rare occasions, the court considers only cases that have gone up the federal judicial system food chain: usually starting in a district court and then going to an appellate court. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, the final step on the legal ladder. Its decision is law, one that can't be appealed to any other court. (For a more thorough procedural overview, see the \u003ca href=\"http://www.scotusblog.com/reference/educational-resources/supreme-court-procedure/\" target=\"_blank\">SCOTUS Blog\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The clerks recommend which appeals their justices should consider or overlook, and the justices then vote. Four of nine justices have to agree to take a case and hear oral arguments. This is called “granting certiorari.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only a tiny percentage of those thousands of appeals actually see the light of day. The court now accepts about 80 cases a term, hearing oral arguments between October and April. In that respect, the court's less publicized decisions to NOT a hear a case are often as consequential (in that it upholds the decision of the lower court).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The petitioner and respondent usually appear in court for an hour-long session, during which they're pelted with questions from the nine justices (although Justice Clarence Thomas very rarely utters a word).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The justices then meet privately to vote on the decision. Unless the decision is unanimous, a justice from either side is selected to write the majority and dissenting opinions. Later in the term, the court announces -- or hands down -- its decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "How the Money Bail System Works and Why Some Say It Isn't Fair",
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"content": "\u003cp>More than half the U.S. jail population has never actually been convicted of a crime. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s roughly 420,000 “pretrial” defendants stuck behind bars in city and county jails who haven't had their day in court, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/jim13st.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Bureau of Justice Statistics\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And many of these defendants are in jail for one simple reason: they can't afford to pay bail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/262327143&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Bail and bail bonds\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Bail is what courts often require defendants to pay in order to gain temporary release from jail before trial. It’s a kind of collateral, a way for the court to ensure that defendants return for their legal proceedings without having to be detained in the interim. If a defendant fails to appear in court, he or the entity that puts up the money on his behalf (the bail bondsman) is liable for the full bail amount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After arrest, defendants are occasionally released on their own recognizance, and those accused of the most violent crimes may be denied bail entirely. Most defendants, though, are offered one of the following bail payment options (a \"bond\"):\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Cash bond\u003c/b> - defendant pays the full bail amount to the court, which is then reimbursed upon return, minus fees and administrative costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Property bond\u003c/b> - property is used instead of cash to secure release. The court places a \u003ca href=\"http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lien.asp\" target=\"_blank\">lien\u003c/a> on the property until the defendant returns to court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Surety bond - \u003c/b> a commercial bail bond issued by a bail bond agent (or bondsman), who signs a promissory note to the court for the full amount of the bond. Bondsmen don't actually pay the full amount up front, but must show that they have sufficient resources to cover it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A commercial bail bond is\u003ca href=\"http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/posting-bail.html\" target=\"_blank\"> a three-party contract\u003c/a> between the defendant, the court, and the bond agent, in which the bond agent agrees to forfeit the bail amount if the defendant fails to appear in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Typically, a defendant will pay a bondsmen a non-refundable fee for the service (usually about 10 to 15 percent of the bail amount). Although the practice is prohibited in a handful of states, surety bonds remain the most common form of bail in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>The big business of bail bonds\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>On the streets near most city and county courthouses around the country, there are no shortage of bail bond businesses, flashing their services in neon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United States is one of only two countries in the world with an official private bail trade (the other is the Philippines), an estimated $2 billion industry with upwards of 15,000 bail agents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's the only part of the criminal justice system that doesn't cost the taxpayers any money,” says Dennis Sew, Vice President of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.pbus.com/\">Professional Bail Agents of the United States\u003c/a>. Bail bond agents and the bounty hunters they employ have enforcement powers similar to police officers in terms of finding and detaining absentee clients. “The bondsman has a financial interest in the defendant,\" Sew explains. \"We will always go looking for him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bond agents vet potential clients on their ability to pay and likelihood of showing up in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"If you're homeless and you have nobody and there’s no guarantee you'll show up in court, then you may need to stay in jail,” Sew notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Bail rates\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Although the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that “excessive bail shall not be required,\" critics of the system argue that bail is often set at unreasonably high rates, a factor they say disproportionately impacts poor defendants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So much is based not on the crime you committed but the jurisdiction in which you happen to have committed the crime,\" notes Daniel Macallair, of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cjcj.org\">Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice\u003c/a>. Bail rates for any given crime, he adds, vary widely by state and county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take California, where bail rates range considerably across the state's 58 counties. If you’re arrested for petty theft in Alameda County, the guideline bail amount is $15,000. But if arrested for the same offense in Orange County, you'll be liable for $20,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again, this is the total amount that must be paid if a defendant fails to show up in court. In most cases, the defendant or bond agent need only pay a percentage of this total bond to gain release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe src=\"https://lowdowntest.cartodb.com/viz/70abcd44-116a-11e6-bb6c-0e787de82d45/embed_map\" width=\"100%\" height=\"800\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In most states, bail bond agents can't charge clients more than 10 to 15 percent of the total bail amount. Nonetheless, if your bail is $20,000, 10 percent is still $2,000, a sizeable amount of cash that a potentially innocent defendant might have to pay out-of-pocket to avoid sitting in jail for weeks or event months until trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's also a factor that's led innocent defendants in certain cases to admit guilt after arrest, particularly when doing so is less costly than paying bail fees or awaiting trial in jail (even if it results in a lasting criminal record).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monetary bail often “prevents the criminal justice system from operating in a fair and balanced way,\" argues Macallair, as it makes release contingent on a defendant's ability to pay, not his risk to society. Holding someone in jail pretrial, he adds, is costly for both taxpayers who foot the bill and for defendants whose employment or housing opportunities may be jeopardized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And time spent in jail pretrial may also have an impact on the outcome of the actual trial, a factor that can potentially sway a jury during trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 2013 \u003ca href=\"http://www.arnoldfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/LJAF-Pretrial-CJ-Research-brief_FNL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Arnold Foundation report\u003c/a> found that when defendants remain in jail during the period before their case is heard, they are three times more likely be convicted and sent to jail and twice as likely to be sent to prison. The report also revealed that jail sentences were three times longer and prison sentences twice as long for defendants who had been detained before their court case.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>More than half the U.S. jail population has never actually been convicted of a crime. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s roughly 420,000 “pretrial” defendants stuck behind bars in city and county jails who haven't had their day in court, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/jim13st.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Bureau of Justice Statistics\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And many of these defendants are in jail for one simple reason: they can't afford to pay bail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/262327143&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Bail and bail bonds\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Bail is what courts often require defendants to pay in order to gain temporary release from jail before trial. It’s a kind of collateral, a way for the court to ensure that defendants return for their legal proceedings without having to be detained in the interim. If a defendant fails to appear in court, he or the entity that puts up the money on his behalf (the bail bondsman) is liable for the full bail amount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After arrest, defendants are occasionally released on their own recognizance, and those accused of the most violent crimes may be denied bail entirely. Most defendants, though, are offered one of the following bail payment options (a \"bond\"):\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Cash bond\u003c/b> - defendant pays the full bail amount to the court, which is then reimbursed upon return, minus fees and administrative costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Property bond\u003c/b> - property is used instead of cash to secure release. The court places a \u003ca href=\"http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lien.asp\" target=\"_blank\">lien\u003c/a> on the property until the defendant returns to court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Surety bond - \u003c/b> a commercial bail bond issued by a bail bond agent (or bondsman), who signs a promissory note to the court for the full amount of the bond. Bondsmen don't actually pay the full amount up front, but must show that they have sufficient resources to cover it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A commercial bail bond is\u003ca href=\"http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/posting-bail.html\" target=\"_blank\"> a three-party contract\u003c/a> between the defendant, the court, and the bond agent, in which the bond agent agrees to forfeit the bail amount if the defendant fails to appear in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Typically, a defendant will pay a bondsmen a non-refundable fee for the service (usually about 10 to 15 percent of the bail amount). Although the practice is prohibited in a handful of states, surety bonds remain the most common form of bail in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>The big business of bail bonds\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>On the streets near most city and county courthouses around the country, there are no shortage of bail bond businesses, flashing their services in neon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United States is one of only two countries in the world with an official private bail trade (the other is the Philippines), an estimated $2 billion industry with upwards of 15,000 bail agents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's the only part of the criminal justice system that doesn't cost the taxpayers any money,” says Dennis Sew, Vice President of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.pbus.com/\">Professional Bail Agents of the United States\u003c/a>. Bail bond agents and the bounty hunters they employ have enforcement powers similar to police officers in terms of finding and detaining absentee clients. “The bondsman has a financial interest in the defendant,\" Sew explains. \"We will always go looking for him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bond agents vet potential clients on their ability to pay and likelihood of showing up in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"If you're homeless and you have nobody and there’s no guarantee you'll show up in court, then you may need to stay in jail,” Sew notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Bail rates\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Although the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that “excessive bail shall not be required,\" critics of the system argue that bail is often set at unreasonably high rates, a factor they say disproportionately impacts poor defendants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So much is based not on the crime you committed but the jurisdiction in which you happen to have committed the crime,\" notes Daniel Macallair, of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cjcj.org\">Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice\u003c/a>. Bail rates for any given crime, he adds, vary widely by state and county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take California, where bail rates range considerably across the state's 58 counties. If you’re arrested for petty theft in Alameda County, the guideline bail amount is $15,000. But if arrested for the same offense in Orange County, you'll be liable for $20,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again, this is the total amount that must be paid if a defendant fails to show up in court. In most cases, the defendant or bond agent need only pay a percentage of this total bond to gain release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe src=\"https://lowdowntest.cartodb.com/viz/70abcd44-116a-11e6-bb6c-0e787de82d45/embed_map\" width=\"100%\" height=\"800\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In most states, bail bond agents can't charge clients more than 10 to 15 percent of the total bail amount. Nonetheless, if your bail is $20,000, 10 percent is still $2,000, a sizeable amount of cash that a potentially innocent defendant might have to pay out-of-pocket to avoid sitting in jail for weeks or event months until trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's also a factor that's led innocent defendants in certain cases to admit guilt after arrest, particularly when doing so is less costly than paying bail fees or awaiting trial in jail (even if it results in a lasting criminal record).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monetary bail often “prevents the criminal justice system from operating in a fair and balanced way,\" argues Macallair, as it makes release contingent on a defendant's ability to pay, not his risk to society. Holding someone in jail pretrial, he adds, is costly for both taxpayers who foot the bill and for defendants whose employment or housing opportunities may be jeopardized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And time spent in jail pretrial may also have an impact on the outcome of the actual trial, a factor that can potentially sway a jury during trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 2013 \u003ca href=\"http://www.arnoldfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/LJAF-Pretrial-CJ-Research-brief_FNL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Arnold Foundation report\u003c/a> found that when defendants remain in jail during the period before their case is heard, they are three times more likely be convicted and sent to jail and twice as likely to be sent to prison. The report also revealed that jail sentences were three times longer and prison sentences twice as long for defendants who had been detained before their court case.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21152\">\u003cimg class=\"alignnone wp-image-21152 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010.png\" alt=\"1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010.png 1280w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010-400x267.png 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010-768x512.png 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010-1180x786.png 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010-960x640.png 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>UPDATE (March 16)\u003c/strong>: President Obama on Wednesday announced his decision to nominate \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/16/470643431/-i-ve-made-my-decision-on-supreme-court-nominee-president-obama-says\" target=\"_blank\">Merrick Garland\u003c/a>, a centrist appeals court judge, originally from Chicago, as the nation’s 113th Supreme Court justice.\u003c/em>\u003c!--more-->The unexpected death in February of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia leaves open a coveted seat on the 9-member High Court, upping the ante of an already high stakes presidential race.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier1\">What happens now?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier2\">Can Senate Republicans really block the nomination?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier4\">Why is this particular nomination such a big deal?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier5\">Do presidents always pick nominees who share their politics?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier6\">Is this court’s political divide all that unusual?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier7\">What are the big cases left in this term, and how do they get decided with only eight justices?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier8\">Who can be a Supreme Court justice?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier9\">How many cases does the court hear each year, and how does it decide which ones to take?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Scalia was the longest serving member of the current court, and one of its staunchest conservatives. Known throughout his 30-year tenure for colorfully crafted opinions and biting dissents, Scalia consistently reinforced his unique read of the Constitution as a “dead” document meant to be interpreted the way the Founders originally conceived it more than 200 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As celebrated by the right-wing establishment as he was scorned by the left, Scalia remained adamantly opposed to gay marriage, abortion rights, affirmative action, gun control and government regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the court is split between four Republican and four Democratic appointees. President Obama's nominee, if appointed, could potentially shift the court's political balance from right to left. And that’s a prospect that Senate Republicans are hell-bent on blocking.\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier1\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>What happens now?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>It's the president's \u003ca href=\"https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii\" target=\"_blank\">constitutional responsibility\u003c/a> to nominate a new justice to fill an open seat, and Obama quickly made clear his intention to do so. On March 16, he announced the nomination of Merrick Garland, a centrist appeals court judge, who now faces a daunting Senate confirmation process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the \"normal\" confirmation process, the president’s nominee testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which decides whether to give the go-ahead for the vote to proceed to the full Senate. If the Senate votes affirmatively, the president can formally appoint the nominee to the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interestingly, Scalia was unanimously confirmed by the Senate after his nomination in 1986. But the nominating process is now far more politically fraught, especially with a Democratic president and Republican controlled Congress. And this being an election year, and Obama’s final stint in office, Senate Republicans argue that such a consequential decision should be made by the next president.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) \u003ca href=\"http://%E2%80%9CThe%20American%20people%20should%20have%20a%20voice%20in%20the%20selection%20of%20their%20next%20Supreme%20Court%20Justice\" target=\"_blank\">told reporters\u003c/a> soon after news broke of Scalia’s death. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McConnell and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have since \u003ca href=\"http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/mcconnell-grassley-rally-conservative-groups-for-supreme-court-fight-220162\" target=\"_blank\">refused to hold\u003c/a> any hearings or a vote for Obama's nominee.\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier2\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Can they really do that?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Technically, yes. The Constitution dictates that Supreme Court nominees must be confirmed by the Senate. And a \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/23/us/politics/document-Senate-SCOTUS-Letter.html\" target=\"_blank\">recent letter\u003c/a> from Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee makes an effort to justify their intent to block Obama's nominee: “Not since 1932 has the Senate confirmed in a presidential election year a Supreme Court nominee to a vacancy arising in that year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, thwarting the nomination process until Obama leaves office, nearly a year from now, would also be unprecedented. The Senate has never taken \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/13/us/how-long-does-it-take-to-confirm-a-supreme-court-nominee.html\" target=\"_blank\">more than 125 days\u003c/a> to vote on a nominee, and the average length of time from nomination to confirmation vote is 25 days.\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier4\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Why is this particular nomination such a big deal?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Although the judiciary is intended to be a non-partisan branch of government, the reality is otherwise. The Supreme Court is sharply divided along partisan lines. Of the eight remaining justices, four lean pretty consistently to the right (John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas and, to a slightly less predictable extent, Anthony Kennedy), and the other four, pretty consistently to the left (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer). Scalia was a reliable vote for conservative causes, one of the five justices who tipped the balance of the court to the right. Obama’s nominee could presumably shift the balance back to the left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, we’re talking about a lifetime appointment here. That's some serious job security, and it means that whoever gets the Supreme Court gig will likely be there for quite some time - until he or she decides to retire or, well, dies. Say Obama nominates a 50-year-old to the court: if appointed, that justice may well remain for the next 30 or 40 years, impacting national affairs long after Obama is out of the limelight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/4CAtUs-PI4c \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier5\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Do presidents always pick nominees who share their politics?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Usually (wouldn’t you?). There are, however, some notable exceptions, including justices who have shifted positions during their time on the court, much to the chagrin of the presidents they were appointed by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Dwight Eisenhower, for instance, once referred to his appointment of Chief Justice Earl Warren as “the biggest damn fool mistake I ever made.\"\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier6\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>So is this court's political divide all that unusual?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>To some extent, yes. Although most judges aren't elected or considered \"politicians,\" you'd be hard pressed to find a judge whose legal decisions aren't influenced by his or her political beliefs. As such, there have always been partisan divides on the Supreme Court. But in recent years, this political polarization has intensified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2432111\">William and Mary Law School study\u003c/a> found that since 1990 there has been a “dramatic increase in the ideological gap between Democratic and Republican appointees.” As a result, it notes, “presidential elections will matter more to Court decision-making than they ever have in this nation’s history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS-e1457657882278.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21270\">\u003cimg class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-21270\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS-e1457657882278.png\" alt=\"SCOTUS\" width=\"957\" height=\"638\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The divide extends to the justice’s law clerks, who play a crucial role in both selecting the cases the court chooses to hear and influencing the justices in their rulings. Justices have historically sought clerks who, to some extent, reflect a range of political views. As the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/us/politics/07clerks.html?pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\">New York Times\u003c/a> reported in 2010: “These days the more conservative justices are much more likely than were their predecessors to hire clerks who worked for judges appointed by Republicans. And the more liberal justices are more likely than in the past to hire from judges appointed by Democrats.”\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier7\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>What are the big cases this term, and how do they get decided with only eight justices?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Last week, the court heard a major case on the legality of a restrictive Texas abortion law, a decision that's expected to be closely divided. If it comes down to a 4-4 split, the Texas law remains in effect. The court will also hear controversial cases on affirmative action, labor unions and the legality of Obama’s executive order that shields some undocumented immigrants from deportation. (See the complete list of cases\u003ca href=\"http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/terms/ot2015/\" target=\"_blank\"> here.\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court will continues to hear its scheduled docket of cases. If there is a 4-to-4 vote on any decision, then the the lower court’s ruling stands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with only eight justices on hand, some of these cases likely won't be decided as originally anticipated. In late February, for instance, the Dow Chemical company, which had banked on Scalia's support, quickly decided to \u003ca href=\"http://www.scotusblog.com/2016/02/the-changing-Court-brings-an-end-to-a-major-case/\">settle a case\u003c/a> it was scheduled to argue before the court, fearing a likely 4-4 split (which would default to the lower court's decision against the company).\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier8\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Who can be a Supreme Court justice?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Anyone! The Constitution doesn’t actually spell out any guidelines on age or education-level (although you wouldn’t know it looking at the resumes of the current justices, all of whom attended law school at either Harvard or Yale). Nominees don't need to have judicial experience. Heck, they don't even need law degrees. And unlike the presidency, there is no requirement to be a “natural-born” citizen. In fact, foreign-born justices have been \u003ca href=\"http://www.supremecourt.gov/faq_justices.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">appointed six times\u003c/a> throughout the court’s history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even former president's can be on the court: President William Howard Taft was appointed Chief Justice in 1921, nearly a decade after his presidency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So maybe a Justice Obama someday? I wouldn't hold your breath.\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier9\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>How many cases does the court hear each year, and how does it decide which ones to take?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Again, much of the work is done by law clerks. Each term, they pour through upwards of 8,000 requests, called a petition for a writ of certiorari (or a \"cert. petition\"). These are brought by the petitioners, who have already exhausted all appeals in federal and state courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Except in very rare occasions, the court only considers cases that have gone up the judicial system food chain. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, the final step on the legal ladder. It's decision is law, one that can't be appealed to any other court. (For a more throughout procedural overview, see the \u003ca href=\"http://www.scotusblog.com/reference/educational-resources/supreme-court-procedure/\" target=\"_blank\">SCOTUS Blog\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The clerks recommend which appeals their justices should consider or overlook, and the justices then vote. Four of nine justices have to agree to take a case and hear oral arguments. This is called “granting ceriorari.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only a tiny percentage of those thousands of appeals actually see the light of day. The court now accepts about 80 cases a term, hearing oral arguments between October and April. In that respect, the court's less publicized decision to NOT a hear a case is often quite consequential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The petitioner and respondent usually appear in court for an hour-long session, during which they're pelted with questions from the nine justices (although Justice Clarence Thomas very rarely utters a word).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The justices then meet privately to vote on the decision. Unless the decision is unanimous, a justice from either side is selected to write the majority and dissenting opinions. Later in the term, the court announces -- or “hands down” -- its decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/7sualy8OiKk\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21152\">\u003cimg class=\"alignnone wp-image-21152 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010.png\" alt=\"1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010.png 1280w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010-400x267.png 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010-768x512.png 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010-1180x786.png 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/1280px-Supreme_Court_US_2010-960x640.png 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>UPDATE (March 16)\u003c/strong>: President Obama on Wednesday announced his decision to nominate \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/16/470643431/-i-ve-made-my-decision-on-supreme-court-nominee-president-obama-says\" target=\"_blank\">Merrick Garland\u003c/a>, a centrist appeals court judge, originally from Chicago, as the nation’s 113th Supreme Court justice.\u003c/em>\u003c!--more-->The unexpected death in February of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia leaves open a coveted seat on the 9-member High Court, upping the ante of an already high stakes presidential race.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier1\">What happens now?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier2\">Can Senate Republicans really block the nomination?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier4\">Why is this particular nomination such a big deal?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier5\">Do presidents always pick nominees who share their politics?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier6\">Is this court’s political divide all that unusual?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier7\">What are the big cases left in this term, and how do they get decided with only eight justices?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier8\">Who can be a Supreme Court justice?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#unique-identifier9\">How many cases does the court hear each year, and how does it decide which ones to take?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Scalia was the longest serving member of the current court, and one of its staunchest conservatives. Known throughout his 30-year tenure for colorfully crafted opinions and biting dissents, Scalia consistently reinforced his unique read of the Constitution as a “dead” document meant to be interpreted the way the Founders originally conceived it more than 200 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As celebrated by the right-wing establishment as he was scorned by the left, Scalia remained adamantly opposed to gay marriage, abortion rights, affirmative action, gun control and government regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the court is split between four Republican and four Democratic appointees. President Obama's nominee, if appointed, could potentially shift the court's political balance from right to left. And that’s a prospect that Senate Republicans are hell-bent on blocking.\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier1\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>What happens now?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>It's the president's \u003ca href=\"https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii\" target=\"_blank\">constitutional responsibility\u003c/a> to nominate a new justice to fill an open seat, and Obama quickly made clear his intention to do so. On March 16, he announced the nomination of Merrick Garland, a centrist appeals court judge, who now faces a daunting Senate confirmation process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the \"normal\" confirmation process, the president’s nominee testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which decides whether to give the go-ahead for the vote to proceed to the full Senate. If the Senate votes affirmatively, the president can formally appoint the nominee to the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interestingly, Scalia was unanimously confirmed by the Senate after his nomination in 1986. But the nominating process is now far more politically fraught, especially with a Democratic president and Republican controlled Congress. And this being an election year, and Obama’s final stint in office, Senate Republicans argue that such a consequential decision should be made by the next president.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) \u003ca href=\"http://%E2%80%9CThe%20American%20people%20should%20have%20a%20voice%20in%20the%20selection%20of%20their%20next%20Supreme%20Court%20Justice\" target=\"_blank\">told reporters\u003c/a> soon after news broke of Scalia’s death. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McConnell and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have since \u003ca href=\"http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/mcconnell-grassley-rally-conservative-groups-for-supreme-court-fight-220162\" target=\"_blank\">refused to hold\u003c/a> any hearings or a vote for Obama's nominee.\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier2\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Can they really do that?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Technically, yes. The Constitution dictates that Supreme Court nominees must be confirmed by the Senate. And a \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/23/us/politics/document-Senate-SCOTUS-Letter.html\" target=\"_blank\">recent letter\u003c/a> from Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee makes an effort to justify their intent to block Obama's nominee: “Not since 1932 has the Senate confirmed in a presidential election year a Supreme Court nominee to a vacancy arising in that year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, thwarting the nomination process until Obama leaves office, nearly a year from now, would also be unprecedented. The Senate has never taken \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/13/us/how-long-does-it-take-to-confirm-a-supreme-court-nominee.html\" target=\"_blank\">more than 125 days\u003c/a> to vote on a nominee, and the average length of time from nomination to confirmation vote is 25 days.\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier4\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Why is this particular nomination such a big deal?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Although the judiciary is intended to be a non-partisan branch of government, the reality is otherwise. The Supreme Court is sharply divided along partisan lines. Of the eight remaining justices, four lean pretty consistently to the right (John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas and, to a slightly less predictable extent, Anthony Kennedy), and the other four, pretty consistently to the left (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer). Scalia was a reliable vote for conservative causes, one of the five justices who tipped the balance of the court to the right. Obama’s nominee could presumably shift the balance back to the left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, we’re talking about a lifetime appointment here. That's some serious job security, and it means that whoever gets the Supreme Court gig will likely be there for quite some time - until he or she decides to retire or, well, dies. Say Obama nominates a 50-year-old to the court: if appointed, that justice may well remain for the next 30 or 40 years, impacting national affairs long after Obama is out of the limelight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/4CAtUs-PI4c \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier5\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Do presidents always pick nominees who share their politics?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Usually (wouldn’t you?). There are, however, some notable exceptions, including justices who have shifted positions during their time on the court, much to the chagrin of the presidents they were appointed by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Dwight Eisenhower, for instance, once referred to his appointment of Chief Justice Earl Warren as “the biggest damn fool mistake I ever made.\"\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier6\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>So is this court's political divide all that unusual?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>To some extent, yes. Although most judges aren't elected or considered \"politicians,\" you'd be hard pressed to find a judge whose legal decisions aren't influenced by his or her political beliefs. As such, there have always been partisan divides on the Supreme Court. But in recent years, this political polarization has intensified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2432111\">William and Mary Law School study\u003c/a> found that since 1990 there has been a “dramatic increase in the ideological gap between Democratic and Republican appointees.” As a result, it notes, “presidential elections will matter more to Court decision-making than they ever have in this nation’s history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS-e1457657882278.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21270\">\u003cimg class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-21270\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2016/03/SCOTUS-e1457657882278.png\" alt=\"SCOTUS\" width=\"957\" height=\"638\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The divide extends to the justice’s law clerks, who play a crucial role in both selecting the cases the court chooses to hear and influencing the justices in their rulings. Justices have historically sought clerks who, to some extent, reflect a range of political views. As the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/us/politics/07clerks.html?pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\">New York Times\u003c/a> reported in 2010: “These days the more conservative justices are much more likely than were their predecessors to hire clerks who worked for judges appointed by Republicans. And the more liberal justices are more likely than in the past to hire from judges appointed by Democrats.”\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier7\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>What are the big cases this term, and how do they get decided with only eight justices?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Last week, the court heard a major case on the legality of a restrictive Texas abortion law, a decision that's expected to be closely divided. If it comes down to a 4-4 split, the Texas law remains in effect. The court will also hear controversial cases on affirmative action, labor unions and the legality of Obama’s executive order that shields some undocumented immigrants from deportation. (See the complete list of cases\u003ca href=\"http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/terms/ot2015/\" target=\"_blank\"> here.\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court will continues to hear its scheduled docket of cases. If there is a 4-to-4 vote on any decision, then the the lower court’s ruling stands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with only eight justices on hand, some of these cases likely won't be decided as originally anticipated. In late February, for instance, the Dow Chemical company, which had banked on Scalia's support, quickly decided to \u003ca href=\"http://www.scotusblog.com/2016/02/the-changing-Court-brings-an-end-to-a-major-case/\">settle a case\u003c/a> it was scheduled to argue before the court, fearing a likely 4-4 split (which would default to the lower court's decision against the company).\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier8\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Who can be a Supreme Court justice?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Anyone! The Constitution doesn’t actually spell out any guidelines on age or education-level (although you wouldn’t know it looking at the resumes of the current justices, all of whom attended law school at either Harvard or Yale). Nominees don't need to have judicial experience. Heck, they don't even need law degrees. And unlike the presidency, there is no requirement to be a “natural-born” citizen. In fact, foreign-born justices have been \u003ca href=\"http://www.supremecourt.gov/faq_justices.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">appointed six times\u003c/a> throughout the court’s history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even former president's can be on the court: President William Howard Taft was appointed Chief Justice in 1921, nearly a decade after his presidency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So maybe a Justice Obama someday? I wouldn't hold your breath.\u003ca name=\"unique-identifier9\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>How many cases does the court hear each year, and how does it decide which ones to take?\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Again, much of the work is done by law clerks. Each term, they pour through upwards of 8,000 requests, called a petition for a writ of certiorari (or a \"cert. petition\"). These are brought by the petitioners, who have already exhausted all appeals in federal and state courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Except in very rare occasions, the court only considers cases that have gone up the judicial system food chain. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, the final step on the legal ladder. It's decision is law, one that can't be appealed to any other court. (For a more throughout procedural overview, see the \u003ca href=\"http://www.scotusblog.com/reference/educational-resources/supreme-court-procedure/\" target=\"_blank\">SCOTUS Blog\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The clerks recommend which appeals their justices should consider or overlook, and the justices then vote. Four of nine justices have to agree to take a case and hear oral arguments. This is called “granting ceriorari.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only a tiny percentage of those thousands of appeals actually see the light of day. The court now accepts about 80 cases a term, hearing oral arguments between October and April. In that respect, the court's less publicized decision to NOT a hear a case is often quite consequential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The petitioner and respondent usually appear in court for an hour-long session, during which they're pelted with questions from the nine justices (although Justice Clarence Thomas very rarely utters a word).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The justices then meet privately to vote on the decision. Unless the decision is unanimous, a justice from either side is selected to write the majority and dissenting opinions. Later in the term, the court announces -- or “hands down” -- its decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Presidential Clemency Explained: Why Obama Just Gave 46 Drug Offenders A Ticket Out of Prison",
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"content": "\u003cp>Last week, President Obama (July 13) commuted the sentences of 46 inmates in federal prison, all of whom were serving time for non-violent drug offenses related to cocaine trafficking.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These men and women were not hardened criminals,” Obama said in his announcement. “But the overwhelming majority had been sentenced to at least 20 years. Fourteen of them had been sentenced to life for non-violent drug offenses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All 46 inmates, many of whom still had years left on their sentences, will be released in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/07/13/president-obama-grants-commutations\">commuting these sentences\u003c/a> President Obama was using a unique executive authority granted in \u003ca href=\"https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii\">Article II of the US Constitution\u003c/a>, which states that the president \"shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like supporters today, the Founders argued it necessary for the president to provide relief in cases where the law had been excessively harsh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Modern day presidents have primarily used this power, known as executive clemency, for pardons and commutations. Pardons restore a convicted offenders legal rights, like the ability to vote, serve on a jury or own a gun. Commutations, like the 46 made last week, reduce the severity of a punishment (but unlike pardons, don’t sweep criminal records under the rug). Presidents can only grant clemency to those convicted of federal offenses (governors typically hold that power for state-level crimes).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Obama has actually been pretty slow to exercise his clemency authority: he didn't issue any during his first three years in office. The recent commutations, though, mark the most granted in a single day since the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Obama has now commuted 89 sentences to date. Most have been for non-violent drug offenses, including 22 commutations in March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's more commutations than those granted by presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined. It should be noted, though, how rare these commutations actually are: the 89 granted were out of the more than \u003ca href=\"http://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemency-statistics\">17 thousand Obama has received\u003c/a>, making for a commutation grant rate of about .5%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Obama's pardon record, though, tells a different story. He's only granted 64, one of the lowest rates in presidential history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are only eight other presidents who have pardoned fewer people,” according to P.S Ruckman Jr, who teaches political science at Rock Valley College in Illinois. “[And] three of them died in office before they could complete a term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[\u003ca href=\"http://www.justice.gov/pardon\" target=\"_blank\">Click here\u003c/a> for a complete list of all clemency requests granted and denied during Obama's presidency.]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the spike in the prison population, the use of executive clemency, common among many 19\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> Century presidents, has declined dramatically, and most recent presidents have tended to exercise their clemency powers towards the end of their terms. President Bill Clinton, for instance, who had previously made little use of this power, waited until his very last day in office to grant 140 pardons and several commutations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe class=\"highcharts-iframe\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 450px;\" src=\"//cloud.highcharts.com/embed/urixas\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\nSource: \u003ca href=\"http://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemency-statistics\" target=\"_blank\">DOJ\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its ramping up of clemency relief, the Obama administration is specifically taking aim at the U.S. criminal system and its recent history of harsh sentencing for non-violent offenses. Last year, the Justice Department announced it would prioritize applications from inmates convicted of non-violent, low-level drug offenses who had already spent more than ten years in prison. The department helped launch the \u003ca href=\"https://www.clemencyproject2014.org/\">Clemency Project\u003c/a>, enlisting more than a thousand volunteer defense attorneys to review clemency applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. prison population exploded over the last three decades: in 1980, state and federal prisons held about 300,000 inmates. The current population exceeds \u003ca href=\"http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p13.pdf\">1.5 million\u003c/a>, making it the largest prison system in the world. The federal prison population alone grew from about 24,000 in 1980 to nearly 208,000 today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of this growth was the result of the prolonged War on Drugs, which lawmakers waged heavily throughout 1980s and 1990s as a tough-on- crime tactic. Sentences for non-violent drug offenses were often dramatically extended through new state and federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws (wherein people convicted of specific crimes are sentenced to a fixed minimum number of years in prison).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mouseover points below to see offenses and original sentences of the 46 inmates granted clemency and where they're from. (Note: \"cocaine base\" refers to crack cocaine.). All theses inmates will be released in November. Map produced by Jessica Tarlton.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"520\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https://mgreen.cartodb.com/viz/ab3d9a5a-2fd4-11e5-bfcb-0e8dde98a187/embed_map\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All 46 inmates granted clemency last week had received strikingly harsh sentences for non-violent drug convictions. Many of these drug laws, enacted during the 1980s crack epidemic, made penalties for crack cocaine about a hundred times more severe than for cocaine in its powder form. Disproportionately target African-Americans, these laws swept thousands of non-violent drug offenders into prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To address this disparity, Congress in 2010 passed the \u003ca href=\"http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111s1789enr/pdf/BILLS-111s1789enr.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Fair Sentencing Act\u003c/a>, which significantly eased the penalties for minor crack possession. However, while some aspects of the new law were made retroactive, thousands of offenders sentenced under earlier guidelines are still behind bars, many years left on their original sentences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using clemency to “patch up policy problems” is nothing new, says Douglas Berman, a law professor at The Ohio State University. When America went dry during Prohibition, President Woodrow Wilson pardoned hundreds of people convicted of alcohol related crimes, and his successor pardoned all those who remained in prison after the repeal of the 18\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> Amendment. Presidents John F Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, pardoned hundreds of first-time drug offenders sentenced to mandatory minimums under the Narcotics and Control Act of 1956. And President Jimmy Carter famously used the authority to issue a pardon for Vietnam draft-dodgers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After signing the 46 commutations, Obama reiterated the need for criminal justice reform, noting the rare bipartisan political opportunity at hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their punishments didn’t fit the crimes,” Obama said in a recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/WhiteHouse\">Facebook video\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re at a moment when some good people in both parties, Republicans and Democrats, and folks all across the country are coming together around ideas to make the system work smarter. To make it work better and I’m determined to do my part, wherever I can.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Last week, President Obama (July 13) commuted the sentences of 46 inmates in federal prison, all of whom were serving time for non-violent drug offenses related to cocaine trafficking.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These men and women were not hardened criminals,” Obama said in his announcement. “But the overwhelming majority had been sentenced to at least 20 years. Fourteen of them had been sentenced to life for non-violent drug offenses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All 46 inmates, many of whom still had years left on their sentences, will be released in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/07/13/president-obama-grants-commutations\">commuting these sentences\u003c/a> President Obama was using a unique executive authority granted in \u003ca href=\"https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii\">Article II of the US Constitution\u003c/a>, which states that the president \"shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like supporters today, the Founders argued it necessary for the president to provide relief in cases where the law had been excessively harsh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Modern day presidents have primarily used this power, known as executive clemency, for pardons and commutations. Pardons restore a convicted offenders legal rights, like the ability to vote, serve on a jury or own a gun. Commutations, like the 46 made last week, reduce the severity of a punishment (but unlike pardons, don’t sweep criminal records under the rug). Presidents can only grant clemency to those convicted of federal offenses (governors typically hold that power for state-level crimes).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Obama has actually been pretty slow to exercise his clemency authority: he didn't issue any during his first three years in office. The recent commutations, though, mark the most granted in a single day since the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Obama has now commuted 89 sentences to date. Most have been for non-violent drug offenses, including 22 commutations in March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's more commutations than those granted by presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined. It should be noted, though, how rare these commutations actually are: the 89 granted were out of the more than \u003ca href=\"http://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemency-statistics\">17 thousand Obama has received\u003c/a>, making for a commutation grant rate of about .5%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Obama's pardon record, though, tells a different story. He's only granted 64, one of the lowest rates in presidential history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are only eight other presidents who have pardoned fewer people,” according to P.S Ruckman Jr, who teaches political science at Rock Valley College in Illinois. “[And] three of them died in office before they could complete a term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[\u003ca href=\"http://www.justice.gov/pardon\" target=\"_blank\">Click here\u003c/a> for a complete list of all clemency requests granted and denied during Obama's presidency.]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the spike in the prison population, the use of executive clemency, common among many 19\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> Century presidents, has declined dramatically, and most recent presidents have tended to exercise their clemency powers towards the end of their terms. President Bill Clinton, for instance, who had previously made little use of this power, waited until his very last day in office to grant 140 pardons and several commutations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe class=\"highcharts-iframe\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 450px;\" src=\"//cloud.highcharts.com/embed/urixas\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\nSource: \u003ca href=\"http://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemency-statistics\" target=\"_blank\">DOJ\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its ramping up of clemency relief, the Obama administration is specifically taking aim at the U.S. criminal system and its recent history of harsh sentencing for non-violent offenses. Last year, the Justice Department announced it would prioritize applications from inmates convicted of non-violent, low-level drug offenses who had already spent more than ten years in prison. The department helped launch the \u003ca href=\"https://www.clemencyproject2014.org/\">Clemency Project\u003c/a>, enlisting more than a thousand volunteer defense attorneys to review clemency applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. prison population exploded over the last three decades: in 1980, state and federal prisons held about 300,000 inmates. The current population exceeds \u003ca href=\"http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p13.pdf\">1.5 million\u003c/a>, making it the largest prison system in the world. The federal prison population alone grew from about 24,000 in 1980 to nearly 208,000 today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of this growth was the result of the prolonged War on Drugs, which lawmakers waged heavily throughout 1980s and 1990s as a tough-on- crime tactic. Sentences for non-violent drug offenses were often dramatically extended through new state and federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws (wherein people convicted of specific crimes are sentenced to a fixed minimum number of years in prison).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mouseover points below to see offenses and original sentences of the 46 inmates granted clemency and where they're from. (Note: \"cocaine base\" refers to crack cocaine.). All theses inmates will be released in November. Map produced by Jessica Tarlton.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"520\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https://mgreen.cartodb.com/viz/ab3d9a5a-2fd4-11e5-bfcb-0e8dde98a187/embed_map\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All 46 inmates granted clemency last week had received strikingly harsh sentences for non-violent drug convictions. Many of these drug laws, enacted during the 1980s crack epidemic, made penalties for crack cocaine about a hundred times more severe than for cocaine in its powder form. Disproportionately target African-Americans, these laws swept thousands of non-violent drug offenders into prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To address this disparity, Congress in 2010 passed the \u003ca href=\"http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111s1789enr/pdf/BILLS-111s1789enr.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Fair Sentencing Act\u003c/a>, which significantly eased the penalties for minor crack possession. However, while some aspects of the new law were made retroactive, thousands of offenders sentenced under earlier guidelines are still behind bars, many years left on their original sentences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using clemency to “patch up policy problems” is nothing new, says Douglas Berman, a law professor at The Ohio State University. When America went dry during Prohibition, President Woodrow Wilson pardoned hundreds of people convicted of alcohol related crimes, and his successor pardoned all those who remained in prison after the repeal of the 18\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> Amendment. Presidents John F Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, pardoned hundreds of first-time drug offenders sentenced to mandatory minimums under the Narcotics and Control Act of 1956. And President Jimmy Carter famously used the authority to issue a pardon for Vietnam draft-dodgers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After signing the 46 commutations, Obama reiterated the need for criminal justice reform, noting the rare bipartisan political opportunity at hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their punishments didn’t fit the crimes,” Obama said in a recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/WhiteHouse\">Facebook video\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re at a moment when some good people in both parties, Republicans and Democrats, and folks all across the country are coming together around ideas to make the system work smarter. To make it work better and I’m determined to do my part, wherever I can.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"soldout": {
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