Eric Fish
@ericfish.bsky.social
Law Professor at UC Davis and former federal public defender. Writing about criminal law, constitutional rights, and prosecutions at the border.
Pinned
Eric Fish
@ericfish.bsky.social
· Apr 15
DEFENSE LAWYERS AND THE SEPARATION OF POWERS
<p>Debates over the separation of powers in criminal law ignore defense lawyers. Prosecutors, judges, and legislators are the main focus. Scholars analyze the d
papers.ssrn.com
Fresh on SSRN, my new article (with Chesa Boudin) brings defense lawyers into the criminal law separation-of-powers debate. It proposes understanding defense counsel as embodying a sui generis “defense power,” distinct from legislative, judicial, and executive power. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Reposted by Eric Fish
Kudos to @ucirvinelaw.bsky.social L.Rev. for doing this. And to @jessicasilbey.bsky.social
Below the line of the 1st page of Professor Dan Burk's last article, just published posthumously by the UC Irvine Law Review.
November 13, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Kudos to @ucirvinelaw.bsky.social L.Rev. for doing this. And to @jessicasilbey.bsky.social
Reposted by Eric Fish
My latest article, Policing Children’s Data, is out today. It offers a comprehensive look at how law enforcement accesses children’s digital information and challenges the assumption that parental consent is enough to protect kids’ privacy.
📖 Read more: wustllawreview.org/2025/11/12/p...
📖 Read more: wustllawreview.org/2025/11/12/p...
Policing Children’s Data – Washington University Law Review
In recent years, advances in policing technology have dramatically expanded law enforcement’s ability to access data. This includes children’s data—their photographs, text messages, geolocation data, ...
wustllawreview.org
November 12, 2025 at 9:08 PM
My latest article, Policing Children’s Data, is out today. It offers a comprehensive look at how law enforcement accesses children’s digital information and challenges the assumption that parental consent is enough to protect kids’ privacy.
📖 Read more: wustllawreview.org/2025/11/12/p...
📖 Read more: wustllawreview.org/2025/11/12/p...
time to update the ol’ jury nullification lecture
BREAKING NEWS from @mollyroberts.bsky.social: SANDWICH GUY FOUND NOT GUILTY
We have reached a verdict: Not guilty.
November 6, 2025 at 7:49 PM
time to update the ol’ jury nullification lecture
Reposted by Eric Fish
My new essay is in the University of Chicago Law Review Online: “Children and the Cars That Watch Them.”
Autonomous vehicles promise freedom for kids, but also bring unprecedented surveillance.
Parental consent isn’t enough; we need substantive limits.
lawreview.uchicago.edu/online-archi...
Autonomous vehicles promise freedom for kids, but also bring unprecedented surveillance.
Parental consent isn’t enough; we need substantive limits.
lawreview.uchicago.edu/online-archi...
Children and the Cars That Watch Them | The University of Chicago Law Review
Parents are turning to autonomous vehicles (AVs) to shuttle their children around, seeing them as a safe and convenient option. AVs promise increased mobility for children but bring with them unparall...
lawreview.uchicago.edu
October 14, 2025 at 5:07 PM
My new essay is in the University of Chicago Law Review Online: “Children and the Cars That Watch Them.”
Autonomous vehicles promise freedom for kids, but also bring unprecedented surveillance.
Parental consent isn’t enough; we need substantive limits.
lawreview.uchicago.edu/online-archi...
Autonomous vehicles promise freedom for kids, but also bring unprecedented surveillance.
Parental consent isn’t enough; we need substantive limits.
lawreview.uchicago.edu/online-archi...
Reposted by Eric Fish
Today, I spoke w/Chesa Boudin and @ericfish.bsky.social about a new law review article they've authored. They explore how Public Defenders can expand their power in and out of the courtroom so they can be a greater check on the other branches.
open.spotify.com/episode/7Hbi...
open.spotify.com/episode/7Hbi...
September 10, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Today, I spoke w/Chesa Boudin and @ericfish.bsky.social about a new law review article they've authored. They explore how Public Defenders can expand their power in and out of the courtroom so they can be a greater check on the other branches.
open.spotify.com/episode/7Hbi...
open.spotify.com/episode/7Hbi...
Reposted by Eric Fish
Alas—he went without us! youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs
July 27, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Alas—he went without us! youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs
Reposted by Eric Fish
TX Gov. Abbott has been test running this for the past few years. To understand what this might look like nationwide, we need to look to “Operation Lone Star.”
Sharing more below
Sharing more below
If approved, the move would be the first time Guard troops at the national level have been asked to assist in the removal of migrants in the U.S. without legal status.
DHS asks for 20,000 National Guard troops to assist in deportations
If approved, the move would be the first time Guard troops at the national level have been asked to assist in the removal of migrants in the U.S. without legal status.
www.npr.org
May 16, 2025 at 12:47 PM
TX Gov. Abbott has been test running this for the past few years. To understand what this might look like nationwide, we need to look to “Operation Lone Star.”
Sharing more below
Sharing more below
Fresh on SSRN, my new article (with Chesa Boudin) brings defense lawyers into the criminal law separation-of-powers debate. It proposes understanding defense counsel as embodying a sui generis “defense power,” distinct from legislative, judicial, and executive power. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
DEFENSE LAWYERS AND THE SEPARATION OF POWERS
<p>Debates over the separation of powers in criminal law ignore defense lawyers. Prosecutors, judges, and legislators are the main focus. Scholars analyze the d
papers.ssrn.com
April 15, 2025 at 5:18 AM
Fresh on SSRN, my new article (with Chesa Boudin) brings defense lawyers into the criminal law separation-of-powers debate. It proposes understanding defense counsel as embodying a sui generis “defense power,” distinct from legislative, judicial, and executive power. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
this year’s NCAA tournament is a great illustration of how the free market locks in inequality
March 30, 2025 at 5:46 AM
this year’s NCAA tournament is a great illustration of how the free market locks in inequality
The concern over Hillary Clinton’s email account only gets funnier with time
March 25, 2025 at 1:13 AM
The concern over Hillary Clinton’s email account only gets funnier with time
Reposted by Eric Fish
This will be in tomorrow's Border Update but deserves its own separate post:
Profiles of 15 young Venezuelan men shipped off to El Salvador's prisons last Saturday. None of them seem to be gang members—not at all.
Post is here, with links to sources: adamisacson.com/who-did-the-...
Profiles of 15 young Venezuelan men shipped off to El Salvador's prisons last Saturday. None of them seem to be gang members—not at all.
Post is here, with links to sources: adamisacson.com/who-did-the-...
![Who Did the Trump Administration Just Send to El Salvador’s Dungeons?
The list below is an excerpt from tomorrow’s Border Update, which I’m still drafting. But it deserves to be shared separately.
On March 20 CBS News obtained and published a full list of all 238 Venezuelan men whom the Trump administration sent to El Salvador on March 15, despite a judge’s orders. It appears that 137 had no due process at all—they were sent under the fourth-ever invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The other 101 apparently had orders of removal.
But even though none committed any crimes in El Salvador, the government of Nayib Bukele sent them directly to the “Center for Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT),” a mega-jail built about two years ago to hold gang members, from which no prisoner is known to have been released.
For many of their loved ones, the CBS list was the first confirmation of their whereabouts. “Family members of the men say they’ve had no way to communicate with their loved ones,” noted Jonathan Lemire and Nick Miroff at the Atlantic, “So they study the [Salvadoran government’s] propaganda videos for glimpses of sons and spouses among the deportees.”
Here are profiles that I’ve seen of 15 of them, with links to sources. They really do not seem to be gang members at all.
Gustavo Adolfo Aguilera Agüero, 27, had been living in Dallas with his wife since December 2023, when they entered the United States with a CBP One appointment. In early February 2025, Aguilera was arrested while taking out the trash outside their home, his wife told the Miami Herald. He has a nine-month-old U.S. citizen son. His tattoos include his older, Venezuelan-born son’s name, his name and his mother’s name, and a reggaeton lyric. His mother says he has no criminal record.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:t5hgkoxrsxpe3wfisqfeymg5/bafkreicwejjymd2hvlk2v7cwsxs3nwarg6gkknkig7v2einrl2ox63mf6e@jpeg)
March 21, 2025 at 3:50 AM
This will be in tomorrow's Border Update but deserves its own separate post:
Profiles of 15 young Venezuelan men shipped off to El Salvador's prisons last Saturday. None of them seem to be gang members—not at all.
Post is here, with links to sources: adamisacson.com/who-did-the-...
Profiles of 15 young Venezuelan men shipped off to El Salvador's prisons last Saturday. None of them seem to be gang members—not at all.
Post is here, with links to sources: adamisacson.com/who-did-the-...
Reposted by Eric Fish
Over at SCOTUS, Justices Sotomayor and Gorsuch encourage defense counsel to keep pushing the originalist argument that misdemeanor arrests require a warrant if the crime is not committed in an officer's presence. supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p... #N
February 25, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Over at SCOTUS, Justices Sotomayor and Gorsuch encourage defense counsel to keep pushing the originalist argument that misdemeanor arrests require a warrant if the crime is not committed in an officer's presence. supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p... #N
Reposted by Eric Fish
I am a former incarcerated firefighter. I served in a California fire camp from 2009 to 2012.
Misinformation is afire on the internet, so here are facts about the prison firefighter program, all in one place.
A thread.
Misinformation is afire on the internet, so here are facts about the prison firefighter program, all in one place.
A thread.
January 15, 2025 at 1:20 AM
I am a former incarcerated firefighter. I served in a California fire camp from 2009 to 2012.
Misinformation is afire on the internet, so here are facts about the prison firefighter program, all in one place.
A thread.
Misinformation is afire on the internet, so here are facts about the prison firefighter program, all in one place.
A thread.
My problem with “criminal legal system” is that the system involves even less law than it does justice.
www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/the...
www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/the...
Vital City | The Problem with the ‘Criminal Legal System’
The activist urge to change basic terminology has significant drawbacks.
www.vitalcitynyc.org
January 3, 2025 at 3:36 AM
My problem with “criminal legal system” is that the system involves even less law than it does justice.
www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/the...
www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/the...
Reposted by Eric Fish
"Diversion" = "send a money order to the cops who cited you, via us (the DA)." Feels like:
(1) not really "diversion."
(2) maybe RICO-ish?
(3) basically the plot of REBEL RIDGE (2024)
(1) not really "diversion."
(2) maybe RICO-ish?
(3) basically the plot of REBEL RIDGE (2024)
December 23, 2024 at 7:47 PM
"Diversion" = "send a money order to the cops who cited you, via us (the DA)." Feels like:
(1) not really "diversion."
(2) maybe RICO-ish?
(3) basically the plot of REBEL RIDGE (2024)
(1) not really "diversion."
(2) maybe RICO-ish?
(3) basically the plot of REBEL RIDGE (2024)
Chesa and I appeared on @pdefenselesspod.bsky.social to discuss our new article on pretrial criminal adjudication! SSRN link here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
December 18, 2024 at 3:23 AM
Chesa and I appeared on @pdefenselesspod.bsky.social to discuss our new article on pretrial criminal adjudication! SSRN link here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
It continues to amaze me that everyone has collectively decided Johnnie Cochran said “if the glove don’t fit, you must acquit.” The theme of his closing was “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” He never uttered the word “glove.”
December 15, 2024 at 2:40 AM
It continues to amaze me that everyone has collectively decided Johnnie Cochran said “if the glove don’t fit, you must acquit.” The theme of his closing was “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” He never uttered the word “glove.”
Pardon expires at midnight. Hunter has four hours to get to the nearest national park and commit every crime.
December 2, 2024 at 3:25 AM
Pardon expires at midnight. Hunter has four hours to get to the nearest national park and commit every crime.
Reposted by Eric Fish
There's a good argument to be made that mass deportations have been going on for more than 30 years.
The first year that formal deportations rose above 50,000 in a single year was 1995. Within three years, deportations rose to 174,000. By 2003, they were above 211,000 a year.
The first year that formal deportations rose above 50,000 in a single year was 1995. Within three years, deportations rose to 174,000. By 2003, they were above 211,000 a year.
November 22, 2024 at 3:52 AM
There's a good argument to be made that mass deportations have been going on for more than 30 years.
The first year that formal deportations rose above 50,000 in a single year was 1995. Within three years, deportations rose to 174,000. By 2003, they were above 211,000 a year.
The first year that formal deportations rose above 50,000 in a single year was 1995. Within three years, deportations rose to 174,000. By 2003, they were above 211,000 a year.
Passing the bar at 17 is of course impressive, but I’m disturbed by the idea that this teenager is now going to be prosecuting and incarcerating people. Odd that no one in the article sees an issue with high school age prosecutors.
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/u...
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/u...
At 17, She Just Passed the State Bar of California
Sophia Park is believed to be the youngest person to pass the California State Bar Exam, besting the previous record-holder: her older brother, Peter.
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2024 at 2:50 AM
Passing the bar at 17 is of course impressive, but I’m disturbed by the idea that this teenager is now going to be prosecuting and incarcerating people. Odd that no one in the article sees an issue with high school age prosecutors.
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/u...
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/u...
Just posted "Towards Pretrial Criminal Adjudication" (coauthored with Chesa Boudin, who is sadly not on Bluesky) to SSRN (papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....), forthcoming in the Boston College Law Review. In it we argue for more robust pretrial adjudication in the criminal justice system. (1/4)
TOWARDS PRETRIAL CRIMINAL ADJUDICATION
The American criminal justice system faces a crisis of adjudication. Courts rarely decide facts, hear arguments, or hold adversary hearings. Trials are an endan
papers.ssrn.com
November 22, 2024 at 8:00 AM
Just posted "Towards Pretrial Criminal Adjudication" (coauthored with Chesa Boudin, who is sadly not on Bluesky) to SSRN (papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....), forthcoming in the Boston College Law Review. In it we argue for more robust pretrial adjudication in the criminal justice system. (1/4)
My child is now in a phase where he goes around the house taking bookmarks out of books and handing them to me
November 17, 2024 at 9:56 PM
My child is now in a phase where he goes around the house taking bookmarks out of books and handing them to me
Feels like the viruses are playing 4D chess…
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to run the Department of Health and Human Services, according to Politico, a move that would elevate a prominent vaccine skeptic and pharmaceutical industry critic to a top role on health policy
Trump Expected to Tap RFK Jr. to Head HHS; Vaccine Stocks Fall
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to run the Department of Health and Human Services, a move that would elevate a prominent vaccine skeptic and pharmaceutical...
www.bloomberg.com
November 14, 2024 at 9:24 PM
Feels like the viruses are playing 4D chess…
Reposted by Eric Fish
Nominating Gaetz and Gabbard, and the apparent recess plan, is pretty much Trump picking up where he left off on January 6th. Push as far as you can and see what you can get away with. Push until they say no. Disastrous for our institutions, sure. But unsurprising from Trump.
November 14, 2024 at 6:25 AM
Nominating Gaetz and Gabbard, and the apparent recess plan, is pretty much Trump picking up where he left off on January 6th. Push as far as you can and see what you can get away with. Push until they say no. Disastrous for our institutions, sure. But unsurprising from Trump.