Siegler Argues Before Seventh Circuit Sitting En Banc
Clinical Professor Alison Siegler, who runs the Law School’s Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, delivered an oral argument before the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals sitting en banc on Wednesday, giving what her colleague Judith Miller called a “virtuoso performance” in U.S. v. Paul Davis, Jr., one of the clinic’s “fake stash house” cases. Siegler argued before a full bench of 10 judges. The Seventh Circuit only sits en banc in criminal cases once every year or two.
The Davis case involves the standard for obtaining discovery in support of a selective prosecution/enforcement claim. Siegler framed the issue at the outset of her argument: “In fake stash house robbery cases, the ATF [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] creates a crime and then chooses people to commit it. And in Chicago, over 91 percent of the people they choose to commit this crime are people of color.”
Siegler’s argument, delivered before a courtroom packed with over a hundred people, can be heard online. (It starts at about 56:00).