Vikrant P. Reddy

Senior Fellow, @CKInstitute

[Billy Binion @billybinion]

Perhaps my favorite Supreme Court exchange in recent memory:

Solicitor general: “It’s a new world."

John Roberts: "It's a new world. It's the same Constitution."

Into my veins 😌

[NACDL @NACDL]

Criminal justice reform can unite across party lines. This panel explores real-world bipartisan wins and how trust, shared values, and smart strategy turn common ground into lasting change. @vpreddy @BriannaNuhfer @MarcALevin @kevinaring #NACDLscjn

[Council on Criminal Justice @CouncilonCJ]

Join the CCJ Centering Justice initiative and a panel of experts–@malcolm_john,@lbeisen, and @vpreddy–for a discussion of the early presidential maneuvers, their potential impacts, and what they may reveal about what’s to come. Register at: https://t.co/mIbcwBoLEC

[Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) @PACEfunders]

.@vpreddy a senior fellow at @StandTogether, joined @Qwillyleads at the @JoyceFdn, to call on philanthropy to transform public safety in America's cities. A great read in @InsidePhilanthr: https://t.co/WbRJN6awCV

[Cato Institute @CatoInstitute]

LIVE TODAY AT 12PM ET: “Defending Due Process: Why Fairness Matters in a Polarized World” with @vpreddy and @brandonlgarrett.

WATCH: https://t.co/2SbV4PjIEN

[Cato Institute @CatoInstitute]

👨‍⚖️ Due process is the foundation of justice—so why is it under attack?
From AI bias to political pressure, fairness is at risk. But there’s hope.
@brandonlgarrett (author of "Defending Due Process") & @vpreddy will break down today’s threats & how we can fight back.
Details & registration: https://t.co/70vzSnCeVQ

[Orin Kerr @OrinKerr]

This Bloomberg column by @NoahRFeldman makes a charge against Justice Gorsuch that falls flat: That Justice Gorsuch's own textualism is responsible for the broad scope of criminal law that Gorsuch opposes. I thought I would say why this argument doesn't work.
🧵
https://t.co/yuSbCIQann

[Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law @WilsonCSJ_]

Many thanks to our advisory board for an excellent meeting this week! We discussed upcoming projects at the center, ways we can engage with stakeholders, and how we can best be effective. Thanks to all!

[Michael Rappaport @MichaelRapp]

I found out today that in many places fortune tellers need to be licensed. And there is, of course, a fee for the license.

[Becky Chapman @Becpt]

I highly recommend this @AdvOpinions podcast episode. Interesting and thought provoking.

[Brett L. Tolman @tolmanbrett]

Great article about my friend and CJR warrior ⁦@ProfPamMetzger⁩ ⁦⁦⁦@RightOnCrime⁩ ⁦@DougDeason⁩ https://t.co/BocMSn8xRn

[John Arnold @johnarnold]

Civil asset forfeiture, in which police can seize one's property without any criminal charges, places the onus on the individual to retrieve it only after significant time and expense, and allows police to use any proceeds to fund their own dept, is so counter to American values that it shocks the conscious.

Despite orgs across the political spectrum, from ACLU to Cato to Heritage, fighting for reforms, the practice persists. The only defenders of the action are governments. Both red and blue states are guilty of abuses, but reforms have been quickening across the states.

The most effective org defending individuals against civil asset forfeiture is longtime @Arnold_Ventures grantee @IJ. Yesterday, they won another case, this time at the Michigan Supreme Court. This goes along with wins in GA, OK, NV, TX and IN, and against the DEA and FBI just in the past year. We support this work because the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th and 14th Amendments also need defending.

[Kinky Friedman @FriedmanKinky]

Kinky Friedman stepped on a rainbow at his beloved Echo Hill surrounded by family & friends. Kinkster endured tremendous pain & unthinkable loss in recent years but he never lost his fighting spirit and quick wit. Kinky will live on as his books are read and his songs are sung.

[Michael Li 李之樸 @mcpli]

Until now, I had never seen the New Yorker’s extraordinary July 1944 cover depicting the D-Day invasion in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry.

[Vikrant P. Reddy @vpreddy]

An excellent list from the @CouncilonCJ's @MarcALevin of criminal justice ideas that are both evidence-backed AND have widespread bipartisan appeal: https://t.co/OlmEQXqt2v cc: @GregBerman50, @AubreyFox1

[Orin Kerr @OrinKerr]

Pleased to share the book cover for my forthcoming book, "The Digital Fourth Amendment," with Oxford University Press. The book won't be out until sometime in the fall, but at least we have the cover now.

[Rob Johnson @FreeRangeLawyer]

That’s me in the photos—almost a decade ago now. I was a young lawyer, had never even argued in court. But, not long after starting work at @IJ, I was testifying before a packed congressional hearing.

That could be you.

@IJ is hiring.

When I graduated from law school, I spent a couple years clerking, and then I went to work at a big law firm in DC. I had some interesting cases (tobacco, sports gambling, insurance, oh my) and I worked with some incredibly talented attorneys. But Big Law wasn’t making me happy.

Partly, it was the hours. Partly, it was the grind. But it was also something else: At the end of the day, Big Law was boring. I did the research, I wrote the briefs, but when it came time to actually show up to court… I carried the briefcase. And when I looked at people more senior than me, I wasn’t sure they were having any fun either.

I wanted life to be exciting, and I wanted life to be meaningful. I wanted to do something that made a difference in the world, and I wanted to have fun doing it. And I wanted to do all that while I was still young.

@IJ delivered.

Not long after I started at @IJ, I began working on cases where the IRS was seizing entire bank accounts because businesses deposited money in the bank in the “wrong” amounts. Yes, you read that right. The IRS called it “structuring”; there’s a law that requires banks to report cash deposits over $10,000, and another law that makes it illegal to “structure” deposits in a way that avoids the reporting requirement. So the IRS was using civil forfeiture to take bank accounts just because businesses deposited $9,000 or so in cash. (Either just by coincidence—that’s what they had to deposit—or sometimes because bank tellers asked them to, to avoid the stress of filling out paperwork.)

Soon I was on the road, meeting with business owners whose accounts had been seized. I was meeting regular people—people with convenience stores, restaurants, bakeries, and farms—who had done nothing wrong and who had been targeted anyway. We filed a series of lawsuits, and my clients’ stories were featured on the front page of the Sunday New York Times. I was quoted in the Times (and elsewhere). We did a YouTube video featuring one client—I wrote the script and voiced the narration—and it went viral. I made appearances on Fox News and MSNBC. And I had the opportunity to testify with my clients at a congressional hearing.

In the end, we were able to do a lot of good for people. The IRS returned my clients’ money, and then, thanks to the pressure generated by the congressional hearing, the IRS ultimately returned millions more seized from thousands of other ordinary Americans. Congress also changed the law, making it harder for the IRS to take money for structuring.

And it was fun.

So that’s my pitch: If you’re a lawyer who cares about liberty, come work with us @IJ. You’ll make the world better, and I promise it will never be boring.

[Vikrant P. Reddy @vpreddy]

"It's not that drugs suddenly become easy to deal with once they are legal. You get to pick the set of problems you have, but you don't get to get rid of problems." A smart, nuanced conversation about drug policy between @EzraKlein and @KeithNHumphreys: https://t.co/zbDoHnQWOn

[StanfordHealthPolicy @StanfordHP]

This Is a Very Weird Moment in the History of Drug Laws.
SHP's @KeithNHumphreys joins @ezraklein to talk about how US drug policy feels very unsettled right now.
https://t.co/P2RPHrSpfd

[Keith Humphreys @KeithNHumphreys]

Thank you @ezraklein for having me the show on to talk about drugs and drug policy
https://t.co/GN5YRf7V4V