Crime

California’s “elderly parole” system, created under AB 3234 and related statutory reforms, allows incarcerated people to be considered for release once they reach age 50 and have served at least 20 years. It is routinely described as a compassionate mechanism for aging inmates and prison population management. But the label ...

In California, a life sentence rarely means life. With limited exceptions — death penalty cases, life without parole (LWOP) sentences, and certain murder convictions — most inmates serving life terms will eventually become eligible for release. In 2021, lawmakers passed AB 3234, lowering the age for “elderly parole” eligibility from ...

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D- Hollister) and  Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez (D- Los Angeles) have announced Assembly Bill 1896, legislation to bar Department of Homeland Security employees who participated in immigration enforcement during the second Trump administration from holding any public employment in California — including peace‑officer positions. It’s the most ...

The Fourth Amendment and decades of case law make clear that law enforcement may not enter a residence for search or arrest without a warrant based on a statement of probable cause and signed by a neutral magistrate. Exceptions exist—exigent circumstances, hot pursuit, searches incident to arrest, plain view, consent—but ...

For decades, the United States has responded to drug trafficking primarily through domestic law enforcement and public health frameworks. Those approaches matter, but they hit a wall when drug supply chains are protected by political power abroad. At that point, local enforcement is reacting to the problem, not shaping it. ...

California Campus Data Clery data from California’s largest universities illustrate the scale of the issue: UC Berkeley and UCLA each reported 61 rapes in 2023. When adjusted for student population, this equates to rates of 184.5 per 100,000 students at UC Berkeley and 164 per 100,000 at UCLA—approximately four to six times the statewide ...

Four decades later, the promised benefits are difficult to find. In California, arrests of underage drivers for driving under the influence are exceedingly rare. In 2024, just 45 juveniles were arrested for driving under the influence—a figure that has remained consistently low for years. Rather than eliminating youth drinking, the ...

Those limits grew out of lived experience and a deep Christian faith shaped by the Protestant Reformation. The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments reflect that inheritance. They function as a kind of secular catechism, a rule book governing our system of justice. This year, John Grisham stepped away ...