Ethics

On Monday August 19, 2024, the Defender Services Office, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, commemorated the 60th Anniversary of the Criminal Justice Act in Washington D.C. A video recording of the live event can be found here.

The commemoration included welcome and introductory remarks from Elizabeth Brown Luck, Chief, Defender Services Office, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Judge Robert J. Conrad, Director, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, provided opening remarks for the celebration.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on five charges, including bribery, fraud and taking foreign donations (access full article). The mayor insists he is innocent.

Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American to take the oath of office as a Supreme Court Justice on October 2, 1967.

President Johnson observed, “Thurgood Marshall symbolizes what is best about our American society: the belief that human rights must be satisfied through the orderly processes of law. … it is a cause of profound satisfaction to me that in [then-] Judge Marshall we shall have an advocate whose lifelong concern has been the pursuit of justice for his fellow man.”

On July 2, 1908, LDF founder and first Director-Counsel, and the first Black Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore. A brilliant legal mind, he won 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court. He died in 1993, leaving behind a legacy that earned him the nickname "Mr.

The Pentagon on Tuesday granted honorable discharges to more than 800 veterans who were separated from the U.S. military because of their sexual orientation during the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which was in effect February 1994.

In December 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law a repeal of the policy, which took effect in September 2011.

Natali Todd, a distinguished trial lawyer and the CJA Panel Representative for the Southern District of New York, has been honored with Gideon’s Promise's Champion of the Community Award. (access event page) The award is given to an outstanding individual or organization that embodies true leadership and actively contributes to the improvement of our criminal legal system.

Following up on the Supreme Court's Padilla v. Kentucky holding that non-citizen criminal defendants must be advised of any risk of deportation associated with a guilty plea, En banc Second Circuit: If a guilty plea could lead to denaturalization and deportation, lawyers must advise their clients of that fact or they're giving unconstitutionally ineffective counsel.

Today, on Veterans Day, Defender Nation honors the service and sacrifice of those who have served in our nation’s armed forces. Their commitment to duty, honor, and country is a powerful reminder of the values that we hold dear—not only as citizens but as defenders.

A prosecutor with more than two decades of big city crime-fighting under his belt will walk into the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday. But he won’t be arguing the cases at the dais; he’ll be sitting on the bench (access full article).

This en banc Tenth Circuit case has a little something for everyone. Bickering over en banc procedure as the court sua sponte ordered it to be heard en banc after the appeal was briefed and argued at panel but before the decision issued. Also, a prosecutor, Assistant U.S.