ARTICLES
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HOW TO WRITE A LEGAL THRILLER
Career Authors, November 16, 2020
BARRETT POISED TO BE SIXTH SCOTUS JUSTICE HAND-PICKED BY FEDERALIST SOCIETY
Truthout, October 24, 2020
Written by Michael Avery and Danielle McLaughlin.
NORTH END JUSTICE
Jungle Red Writers, July 18, 2020
BUCKLEW V. PRECYTHE
Criminal Legal News, July 16, 2019
Impact of having five Federalist Society members on Supreme Court. Analysis of death penalty case.
DO BLACK LIVES MATTER IN THE SUPREME COURT?
Criminal Legal News, June 16, 2018
Supreme Court jurisprudence does not value black lives equally with white lives.
VIDEO: A TWO-EDGED SWORD
Criminal Legal News, March 16, 2018
The presence of video evidence in many police misconduct cases can be very helpful to victims of police abuse. Such evidence, however, must be approached with caution.
SOVIET STORIES
Louisiana Literature, February 1, 2018
In 1968, Michael Avery arrived in the Soviet Union where he would spend a year as a foreign student at the University of Moscow. In this short memoir, published in Louisiana Literature, he recounts several of his Cold War experiences.
BOOK REVIEW: BLOOD IN THE WATER: THE ATTICA PRISON UPRISING OF 1971 AND ITS LEGACY
National Lawyers Guild Review, Spring 2017
A review of Heather Ann Thompson's magnificent account of the Attica prison rebellion.
FEDERAL JUDGES OFTEN LET BAD COPS SLIDE
Baltimore Sun, July 22, 2016
An Op-ed in the Baltimore Sun describing the role federal judges play in tolerating police misconduct.
CASE AGAINST NEW ORLEANS LABORER SHOWS A SECRETIVE ICE, LACKING ACCOUNTABILITY
The Lens, July 2, 2015
Immigrants live in a legal world very different from the rest of us. The police that they worry about—ICE agents—have almost unbridled powers and operate without fear of being held accountable for their actions. The case of Jose Gomez, a New Orleans laborer caught up in a sting operation, demonstrates the failure of the judicial system to protect this powerless sector of our population.
UNDERSTANDING THE SUPREME COURT ARGUMENT ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Truthout, May 30, 2015
An experienced constitutional lawyer takes you into the minds of the lawyers and the justices during the oral argument on same-sex marriage in the Supreme Court. Avery cuts through the legal mumbo-jumbo to explain the problems—legal and political—that had to be overcome for justice to triumph in one of the most important cases of the last hundred years.
DO THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES AND CIVIL RIGHTS ACTS APPLY TO POLICE OPERATIONS?
Truthout, March 6, 2015
Teresa Sheehan, severely disabled by mental illness, was shot and nearly killed in her own apartment by San Francisco police officers. When her case got to the Supreme Court, the question was whether the law would protect her, or the cops.
BOSTON BOMBING TRIAL COULD CAUSE MORE TRAUMA
Boston Herald, November 28, 2014
An Op-ed describing the potential impact on victims of the government's decision to seek the death penalty in the Bostoton Marathon bombing case. Reprinted by the Death Penalty Information Center.
DON'T EXPECT A SAFE, HUMANE ORLEANS PARISH PRISON ANY TIME SOON; HERE'S WHY
The Lens, April 2, 2014
You might think that once a federal judge determines that a jail is operating unconstitutionally, that the rights of prisoners are being violated daily, that the legal battle is over and only a mop up operation remains. In fact, the battle has just begun. Avery explains how the law tied the judge’s hands in the case of the Orleans Parish Prison.
DEFINITION OF LIBERTY IS AT STAKE IN MARRIAGE EQUALITY CASES
Truthout, May 10, 2013
Before the Supreme Court recognized the right of same-sex couples to marry in Obergefell v. Hodges, legal scholars and constitutional lawyers debated what the source of such a right might be. Avery and Danielle McLaughlin explain in straightforward language what was at stake in this debate.
HOW CONSERVATIVES CAPTURED THE LAW
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 15, 2013
Avery and Danielle McLaughlin tell the story of how the Federalist Society grew from a small group of disaffected conservative law students in the early 1980’s to become the pre-eminent influence on law and legal policy by the time of the Bush presidencies.