Monetary sanctions, also known as legal financial obligations (LFOs), are a highly consequential yet underexplored element of the criminal legal system. LFOs consist of fines, fees, costs, restitution, surcharges, and other financial penalties that are imposed on individuals when they encounter the criminal legal system. Drawing on data from a…

This brief report presents preliminary data on the attitudes of judges on the sentencing of offenders with High Functioning Autism (HFA). Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with twenty-one California Superior Court Judges. Interviews were qualitatively coded and constant comparative analysis was utilized. Findings revealed that…

The purpose of this article is to highlight the power of popular discourse in shaping public policy debates concerning educational access and opportunity for historically marginalized and minoritized students, especially for Latinas/os. I argue that proponents of race-conscious policies would do well to challenge the elimination of affirmative…

It was late on Election Day 2010 and Vander Plaats, a Sioux City, Iowa, businessman and leader of a campaign to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices, had just gotten word that he and his team had pulled it off. The voters had rejected the three justices up for a retention vote: David Baker, Michael Streit, and Chief Justice Marsha Ternus.…

Real-life applications of the use (and misuse) of mathematics invariably pique students' interest. This article describes a legal case in California that occurred in the 1960s in which a couple was convicted of robbery, in part, based on the expert testimony of a statistics instructor. On appeal, the judge noted several mathematical errors in this…

Reactions to the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and debate over the president's replacement nomination, Judge John Roberts, Jr., of the D.C. Circuit, dominated this summer's Supreme Court recess. Subsequently, after Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's death on September 3, 2005, President Bush nominated Roberts for the chief justice…

Discusses drug-exposed infants from the perspective of a juvenile court judge. Experience in Los Angeles County (California) illustrates the following common problems in the juvenile courts: (1) high court caseload; (2) lack of legal representation and overloaded case workers; and (3) lack of resources mandated by law. (SLD)