Daniel Loehr

Powerful words from J. Sotomayor dissenting today in #Skrmetti: "By retreating from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most, the Court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims. In sadness, I dissent." www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Prices and Supply, and How Landlords Control Them Attempts to solve the affordable housing crisis rely on a flawed understanding of housing economics and landlord business practices. In reality, landlords are colluding to manipulate the market.

This is concerning. TLDR: So much focus on increasing housing supply through deregulation, but maybe increased supply will not solve the problem, because collusive landlords keep prices high regardless. From Renee Tapp with @lpeproject.bsky.social #nyc #housing

lpeproject.org/blog/prices-...

Trashed: Inside the Deadly World of Private Garbage Collection Waste removal is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country. On the darkened streets of New York City, it’s a race for survival.

Wow this is an incredible article. I'm seven years late to read it, but can't help sharing it now that I have. Thank you, @feldsky.bsky.social for the reporting. #nyc #trash

www.propublica.org/article/tras...

OP-ED: Confronting the eugenic legacy behind New York’s mandatory minimums This spring, the New York State legislature has an opportunity to confront an overlooked yet troubling aspect of its criminal legal system.

My op-ed for Amsterdam News @nyamnews.bsky.social about the history of NY's 3 strikes law, and the opportunity to confront that history through the Marvin Mayfield Act.
amsterdamnews.com/news/2025/05...

After digging around, I learned there is no good reason. Sirens harm EMT workers, harm public health, increase risk of ambulance accidents, and only marginally improve response time, which, for most 911 calls is not needed. Also, other countries have quieter sirens.

Cyclist Launches Class Action Suit For Bogus NYPD Red Light Tickets - Streetsblog New York City The NYPD keeps ignoring a law that allows cyclists to pass through a red light on the "Walk" sign. Now, someone is making a federal case about it.

Here's an article about the class action related to this, reported by @kevinduggan.bsky.social @nyc.streetsblog.org nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/05/12/c...

Here is the text of the law, 2019 Local Law No. 154: "A person operating a bicycle while crossing an intersection shall follow pedestrian control signals except where otherwise indicated by traffic control devices, and provided that such person
shall yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk."

For anyone that bikes in NYC, you are allowed to bike through an intersection when the walk sign appears, even if the light has not gone green yet. But cops have nonetheless been ticketing people for this. Relevant law below for your reference, along with info about a class action lawsuit suing cops

Not sentencing people to life or decades for multiple convictions. Forever, as far as I can tell, sentences have increased for repeated criminal acts. But only marginal increases. What eugenics did was turn those sentences into reproduction ending ones. And that’s what we still have.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Adding this here for historical context of these laws. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Thanks for reporting on this. Adding this here for more historical context. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

@acluvermont.bsky.social @aclu-norcal.bsky.social @acluofcolorado.bsky.social @alabamareflector.com @nacdl.org @famm.org

The Eugenic Origins of Three Strikes Laws: How "Habitual Offender" Sentencing Laws Were Used as a Means of Sterilization – The Sentencing Project Habitual offender laws spread across the U.S. as part of the eugenics movement, and many endure today in 49 states and federal government.

Thank you for supporting this. Important to remove eugenic programs from New York law. Pasting eugenic history of three strikes law below for reference.

www.sentencingproject.org/reports/the-...

There was significant Catholic resistance to sterilization, which led some states (Colorado being one) to choose long sentences over sterilization

If this was news to you, please spread the word. And if you are a practitioner who wants to connect and learn more about this history, please reach out.

#eugenics #criminallaw #sentencing #crimsky #legalhistory #habitualoffender #threestrikes

My hope now is to correct the record on this, so that judges, DAs, legislators, public defenders, and people serving these sentences have a deeper sense of the history. Many of the laws passed in the early 1900s for eugenic reasons are the same ones on the books today. 49 states have these laws.

333 | How The American Eugenics Movement Helped Create Habitual Offender Laws w/Daniel Loehr Public Defenseless Podcast · Episode

And I talked about this on the Public Defenseless podcast. open.spotify.com/episode/39My...

The Eugenic Origins of Three Strikes Laws: How "Habitual Offender" Sentencing Laws Were Used as a Means of Sterilization – The Sentencing Project Habitual offender laws spread across the U.S. as part of the eugenics movement, and many endure today in 49 states and federal government.

I also worked with The Sentencing Project to publish a report on this topic. www.sentencingproject.org/reports/the-...

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

So, the takeaway is that habitual offender laws did not emerge from the tough on crime era in the late 1900s, but instead from the eugenics movement in the early 1900s. The Howard Law Journal published my research on this last month.

On balance, eugenicists preferred sentencing to sterilization because it was a tool that faced less backlash. Habitual offender and three strikes laws passed in 42 states in the first half of the 1900. And when the Nazi party came to power in Germany, they quickly passed a three strikes law.

Based on this belief, eugenicists across the country advocated for three strikes laws and similar habitual offender laws to stop “habitual criminals” from reproducing. Eugenicists debated whether they should use sterilization or long sentences as the tool for eradicating “habitual criminals.”

What I found was that these laws were a product of the eugenics movement. Eugenicists believed that people who committed multiple crimes were likely “genetic criminals” such that they could not be cured, and that they would pass criminality to their offspring if allowed to reproduce.

I always thought that habitual offender laws and three strikes laws emerged in the 1990s as part of the tough-on-crime era. But then I was looking through old state codes and I saw a three strikes law from 1923. Then I found dozens from around this time, and wondered (naively) what was going on.