Changing the Criminal Legal System

The Federal Criminal Justice Clinic’s mission includes advocating to change the criminal legal system. In addition to the articles and advocacy above, Professors Alison Siegler, Erica Zunkel, and Judith Miller have submitted legislative testimony, published articles, given trainings, and even become a plaintiff in a civil rights lawsuit. A selection of this advocacy is included below.

In Spring 2021, Professor Siegler was invited to submit legislative testimony for a House hearing on federal drug policy and led the Clinic in drafting testimony proposing comprehensive changes to the federal criminal system. The FCJC’s testimony explained that, today, people of color account for nearly eighty percent of those convicted of federal crimes, and systemic change is needed.

Through the lens of the FCJC’s stash house litigation, the testimony called for Congress to rectify many systemic problems related to drug policy, law enforcement, and privacy, including: Mandatory minimum penalties and recidivist enhancements fuel mass incarceration; federal drug laws disproportionately impact men of color; non-retroactive legal reforms unjustly leave many behind bars; the federal pretrial detention system casts too wide a net and over-detains people of color; the absence of comprehensive and accessible back-end sentencing relief leaves very limited avenues for people like our stash house clients to avoid an excessive sentence; the trial tax unfairly imposes staggeringly high sentences on people simply because they exercise their constitutional right to trial; prosecutorial discretion is overbroad; racial disparities pervade law enforcement and prosecution; discovery restrictions prevent people like our stash house clients from obtaining information about potential racial discrimination by law enforcement or prosecutors; restrictions on litigating claims of racial discrimination against law enforcement and prosecutors limit the ability of our clients and others to succeed in court; and harsh criminal discovery rules trammel the rights of people accused of crimes.

Selected Press, Testimony, and Publications

• Alison Siegler, End Mandatory Minimums, Brennan Center for Justice (Oct. 18, 2021).
• Alison Siegler, Judith P. Miller & Erica K. Zunkel, Reforming the Federal Criminal System: Lessons from Litigation, 25 J. Gender, Race & Just. 99 (2022).
• Alison Siegler, Erica Zunkel & Judith Miller, Statement of Alison Siegler, Erica Zunkel, & Judith P. Miller, in Congressional Record for the House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security’s Hearing on Controlled Substances: Federal Policies and Enforcement (Mar. 11, 2021)
• Alison Siegler, Shift the Paradigm on Mandatory Minimums, ABA Crim. Just. Mag. (Winter 2022).
• Erica Zunkel & Alison Siegler, The Federal Judiciary’s Role in Drug Law Reform in an Era of Congressional Dysfunction, 18 Ohio State J. of Crim. Law 238 (2020).
• Growing out of an individual representation, Professor Miller published an article addressing the courts’ inadequate protections for individuals accused of speech crimes. Through the lens of prosecutions for false speech, the article proposes refocusing First Amendment protections in criminal cases on criminal procedure rather than substantive questions about what the First Amendment protects. See Judith Miller, Defending Speech Crimes, U. Chi. Legal Forum 177 (2020).
• Professor Siegler interviewed in Documentary: A Court at the Heart of America (2019).
• Professor Miller is also represented by the ACLU of Illinois in a civil rights case arguing that she was denied reasonable accommodation for lactation when called for Cook County jury duty. Professor Miller published an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune detailing her experience, My attempt at jury duty failed—because I’m a nursing mother, Chicago Tribune (Oct. 13, 2017). The ACLU then filed a state human rights charge on Professor Miller’s behalf, and the State of Illinois ultimately passed a new law requiring lactation rooms in all Illinois Circuit Court county courthouses. The ACLU’s website carries additional public education materials related to this issue.
• Alison Siegler, The Courts of Appeals’ Latest Anti-Booker Rebellion, 82 U. Chi. L. Rev. 201 (Winter 2015).
• Alison Siegler, Erica Zunkel, & James DuBray, Written Statement of the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, at 223 in the Congressional Record for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Hearing on Reevaluating the Effectiveness of Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentences (Sept. 18, 2013).
• Written Testimony of Alison Siegler at United States Sentencing Commission Public Hearing, Revising the Illegal Re-entry Guideline, (Jan. 21, 2010).
• Alison Siegler & Barry Sullivan, “‘Death is Different’ No Longer”: Graham v. Florida and the Future of Eighth Amendment Challenges to Noncapital Sentences, 2010 Sup. Ct. Rev. 327 (2011).
• Alison Siegler, Disparities and Discretion in Fast-Track Sentencing, 21 Fed. Sent. R. 299 (June 2009).