• California court blocks school district’s ban on critical race theory

    San Francisco Chronicle
    May 19, 2025

    A Southern California school district’s ban on teaching “critical race theory” — the history and culture of civil rights and racial discrimination — violates its students’ educational rights, a state appeals court ruled Monday.

    Related: Los Angeles Times

  • Supreme Court parole decision faulted for enabling mass incarceration

    At the Lectern
    May 19, 2025

    The Butler opinion, Kline contends, “resurrects all the constitutional and other problems created by the structure of indeterminate sentencing” and it is partially to blame for current prison overcrowding because of its “validation of the Board’s refusal to acknowledge the constitutional limitations of its power to punish.” 

  • Column | AI v. Judicial transparency

    Daily Journal
    May 19, 2025

    (Subscription required) AI tools risk undermining judicial legitimacy by offering conclusions without transparent reasoning--but troubling evidence shows that some human judges also fail to consistently apply legal principles, especially in emotionally charged "bad guy" cases, suggesting that AI may sometimes deliver more impartial outcomes.

  • Ninth Circuit: Judge May Dismiss Action Based on Failure to File Court-Ordered Opposition to Motion

    Metropolitan News-Enterprise
    May 19, 2025

    The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the granting of a motion to dismiss an action with prejudice, without considering the merits, based on the plaintiffs’ disregard of an order to file opposition.