The Supreme Court Has the Chance to Take Up a “DEFCON 1 Legal Scandal”
SlateSign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. A federal appeals court panel has referred to the arrangement as a “dodgy side hustle” and an “utterly bonkers” violation of the right to a fair trial. Other federal judges have called it a “DEFCON 1 legal scandal.” Defense attorneys would have been furious if they had known Petty was on the judge’s payroll. That limitation on the ability of federal courts to vindicate federal constitutional rights is part of a matrix of overlapping legal doctrines that shield government employees from liability when they violate the Constitution—even when they do so egregiously, as the appeals court acknowledged in Wilson’s case. About half of the federal courts of appeals would let Wilson’s case proceed and about half wouldn’t, leaving access to justice dependent on geography.
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