Latest News - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

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Chief Judge Evans Orders Indigence Hearing Reform in Response to Chicago Appleseed Investigation

Chief Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court, Timothy C. Evans, issued General Administrative Order No. 2013-11 yesterday in response to a Chicago Appleseed investigation that uncovered a practice where judges were denying defendants a public defender without the required indigence hearing. The Chi...

Court Battle Over Changes to Arizona’s Commission on Court Appointments

The Brennan Center and Justice at Stake have filed an amicus brief in a challenge to an April 2013 law changing the process by which Arizona’s Commission on Appellate Court Appointments recommends candidates to fill judicial vacancies. The April legislation both requires the nominating commission to...

What E-Filing Can Do for the Courts and the Public

Last week, the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (account required) reported on the progress of the Cook County’s conversion to e-filing. The article directs readers to a survey circulated by the Illinois Supreme Court’s Automation and Technology Committee, which is collecting information about who is and...

Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at the National Urban League Annual Conference in Philadelphia on Thursday. The full text of his remarks is here. AG Holder discussed the recent Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder, concerning the Voting Rights Act of 1965, calling it “deeply disapp...

How Locking Up Adolescents Contributes to Crime

In June, Anna Aizer and Joseph Doyle, in conjuction with the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts released a working paper on rates of incarceration for juvenile offenders and how they correlate with future criminal acts: Juvenile Incarceration, Human Capital And Future C...