WJI daily reads for Dec. 2, 2021

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee County prosecutors erred in the Darrell Brooks case. But the bail assessment tool worked.

In short, the risk tool worked, but it wasn’t followed. Brooks should have had high cash bail, but that doesn’t mean that another person charged with (and presumed innocent of) a serious offense can’t be safely released if other risk factors are not present.

The New York Times: The U.S. Supreme Court seems ready to embrace new abortion restrictions.

Slate: SCOTUS will gaslight us until the end.

Perhaps it would be refreshing if the conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court no longer felt the need to lie to us.

BuzzFeed: SCOTUS justices publicly ponder their legitimacy.

As much as the justices have insisted they don’t make decisions based on public opinion or partisan politics, on Monday they openly discussed their awareness of the legitimacy problem they faced and the perception that they function as an arm of whichever party elevated them to the bench.

The three members of the court’s liberal wing issued an urgent plea to their colleagues that rolling back or outright reversing Roe v. Wade, the court’s landmark decision establishing the right to an abortion, would shred what remained of the public’s faith in their status as a nonpartisan branch of government.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh — one of three justices confirmed under former president Donald Trump — countered that the existence of Roe itself was what forced the court to be a political player, and suggested that removing the court from the debate by getting rid of Roe and leaving it up to states to decide whether to ban or allow abortion could be the best way forward.

The Marshall Project: A man who refused to be an informant for the FBI was apparently really punished for it.

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