A Judge Comments

[...]in the criminal law context, a generally reactionary Supreme Court has nevertheless in recent years expanded the protection provided by the Confrontation Clause and imposed limits on the right of the police to track a defendant's movements by placing a GPS device on the undercarriage of the defendant's car, bring a drug-sniffing dog to a defendant's front porch, and search an arrestee's cell phone incidental to a lawful arrest. The ill-considered Sentencing Reform Act, which led to the federal sentencing guidelines, contributed substantially to making the United States the world's mass incarceration capital, and the equally ill-considered Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), along with some truly misguided Supreme Court decisions, have turned the writ of habeas corpus, once known as the Great Writ of Liberty, into a virtually unworkable remedy for state prisoners whose convictions were obtained through constitutional violations. [...]some states have substantially reduced prison populations and costs, expanded and strengthened community-based sanctions, and relied more extensively on treatment programs for people suffering from mental illness and substance abuse.