Carissa Byrne Hessick

Thanks, Jane!

I enjoyed reading through @cbhessick.bsky.social's latest "Prosecutors and Politics" study. Surprising to learn that most media coverage about prosecutors is neutral in tone (only 6% of 2020 coverage about prosecutors was negative). Is that still true in 2025, in today's era of weaponized justice?

Just posted my new paper (coauthored with Andy Hessick), called Facts, Policy, and Discretion, which is is forthcoming in the @ucdavislaw.bsky.social law review

We address an important error that I keep seeing in criminal justice cases about the nature of discretion papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Yup. I think we write symposium papers more quickly, and sometimes include summaries of prior work. Because they're written quickly, I think the summaries tend to be less carefully caveated than our primary work.

I’ve been wondering whether we could check professors’ symposium pieces to see a) what their priors are and b) how they perceive the core of their arguments when stripped bare of our ordinary hedging and careful language

Calling it: Grand Jury Bluesky will be the worst Bluesky so far.

Tagging in some folks @steveleben.bsky.social @coreyryung.bsky.social to make sure they see the post . . .

Curious whether anyone could tell me more about this statutory restriction on plea bargaining in Kansas.
The conventional wisdom is that the parties will always evade plea bargaining prohibitions. I'm curious whether that has been the experience in KS with this limited carveout

Screenshot of 2 paragraphs from linked WSJ article. Text: “In a Fox News interview in May, she made the claim that since Trump had taken office, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had seized more than 21 million fentanyl pills, and “that’s 21 million lives saved, in my opinion.” Critics seized on it as a dubious claim, given that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in May said synthetic opioids including fentanyl were involved in 48,422 deaths in 2024 and 76,282 deaths in 2023. Two days later, Bondi said the fentanyl seizures had saved 119 million lives, which would be roughly one-third of the 340 million people living in the U.S. In a cabinet meeting, she revised her statement again, this time claiming the seizures had saved 258 million lives. McGavick posted on social media an equation intended to show that the number of seized pills could hypothetically kill 258 million people.”

These 2 paragraphs are bananas. Truly incredible stuff c/o US Attorney General Pam Bondi.

US Justice fires nine more employees from Jack Smith's team, sources say U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday fired at least nine more Justice Department employees who worked for Special Counsel Jack Smith to investigate President Donald Trump's retention of classified records and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to five people familiar with the matter.

DOJ has now fired 26 people who worked on Jack Smith's team. Pure political vengeance against professionals committed to the rule of law.
www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

I'm a professor at the flagship university for the fourth whitest state in the US. Over 80% of our students are white.

The biggest barrier to access here is that due to lack of state funding, we have top 10 highest tuition per capita of public unis in the country.

We also have a food pantry.

this is all downstream of people finding it aversive to change their mind

I increasingly feel certain that the thing that has driven politics insane is the growing ability of people to find ways to validate their beliefs, no matter how incorrect and irrational. It started in right-wing media but has become central to all political discussion.

(Teaching kids how a sports bracket works = important knowledge)

That’s awful. From what I can tell, at least some teachers here are using the week to have fun activities—a science-related scavenger hunt for the middle school kid and a double-elimination pool noodle fencing tournament for the elementary school kid.

we call this "fighting antisemitism"

Is that somehow related to Pinker’s essay? Or the question of whether to frame criticism of Israel in terms of antisemitism?

👀

I always get caught off guard by Memorial Day weekend. It's somehow not on my list of summer occasions.

Important statistics. But questionable claim that SCOTUS isn’t willing to defend the rule of law.

From what I've seen, some criticisms of Israel are steeped in antisemitism, and others aren't.
I think Pinker's essay does a nice job explaining why trying to frame all criticisms of Israel is a poor idea.

Opinion | Harvard Derangement Syndrome

This is the best assessment of the Trump administration vs universities battle that I've seen. Definitely worth the read.
(gift link)

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/o...

USSG name checks Sam Bray! (He should be name checked in any serious discussion about nationwide injunction practices.)

36/

Can't wait until Trump's DHS spokespeople start trying to convince us this American toddler is actually a wife beating human trafficker

Trump is putting 100% of the responsibility and blame for Garcia’s release on “his lawyers” in DOJ

Also, the implication of these comments is either that the lawyers are lying to Trump or that he can’t understand what they’re telling him.

Sociopaths

I think if Jack Lowden is going to play Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice it’s only right that Gary Oldman should play Mr Bennet and Kristin Scott Thomas should play Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Yeah, but did you beat them

To be fair to the press, there’s so much insanity for them to try and cover!

Scammers are texting drivers about unpaid tolls, causing chaos amongst some consumers | CNN Business If you’ve received a text claiming you owe unpaid tolls, you’re not alone.

If you’ve received a text claiming you owe unpaid tolls, you’re not alone.