ACS Double-header!

[Anjali Motgi]

Follow-up the AWESOME ACS kick-off at noon today with 

the PROGRESSIVE SCHOLARSHIP WORKSHOP,

TONIGHT. 6:30. Room 121.

So far, the Progressive Scholarship Workshop has read papers on the perilous future of gender discrimination lawsuits in the employment context and the possibilities for inspiring Americans to participate in the democratic process. This week we'll be switching gears, moving away from civil litigation and political mobilization to criminal justice reform. 

We'll be reading Fiona Doherty's paper "The Return of Indeterminate Sentencing" (attached). The paper will be published in the NYU Law Review next summer, but Professor Doherty is planning to revise it significantly this month; to that end, she welcomes any suggestions and responses from students. The paper looks at the detrimental impact of supervised release on the "determinacy movement" in sentencing in the federal criminal justice system. Professor Doherty argues that the increasing use of supervised release in today's sentences has made the modern criminal justice sentence structurally indeterminate. She challenges federal supervised release as lacking a strong theoretical foundation to justify its widespread imposition, and offers an alternative vision for the role of this penalty in sentencing. This is a timely and important topic; federal supervised release controls the lives of more than 100,000 individuals and yet has received little attention in legal scholarship. If you are a 1L (or a 2/3L) and you know nothing about sentencing, this is the ideal forum in which to jump into one of criminal justice's most troubling  areas. If you're someone who's been involved in criminal justice work in any capacity, you likely already know how desperately the federal system is in need of sentencing reform--what you may not know is that Professor Doherty is one of the leading voices on the issue. 

We are especially excited about Professor Doherty's presentation this week as it is one of our few presentations by a clinical faculty member. Professor Doherty is a YLS alumna ('99), a former federal public defender, and a recipient of the Bernstein Fellowship. In addition to discussing her paper, she's agreed to share her insights on practicing as a public interest litigator and transitioning back to academia as a clinical professor. If you're interested in sentencing issues, criminal justice reform, public interest fellowships, or diverse experiences with legal scholarship, this is a PSW you won't want to miss. 

I look forward to seeing everyone on TONIGHT, in our old/regular room (121) at 6:30 pm. 

Cheers,

Anjali

-- 
Anjali Motgi

Yale Law School, J.D. expected 2014

214.924.4731 | anjali...@gmail.com