Quincy Amerson, a client of the Wrongful Convictions Clinic at Duke Law, was released from prison on March 13 this year, after spending more than 20 years behind bars. He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2001 and had been sentenced to life without parole. After taking up Amerson's case, the clinic presented exculpatory evidence that led to the state dismissing the case. A Superior Court judge found that Amerson was denied a fair trial due and exonerated him of the crime.

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of upholding a 1994 ban on persons with restraining orders having access to firearms. While the outcome in U.S. v. Rahimi wasn’t entirely unexpected, it did offer our first glimpse into how the conservative-majority Court would handle gun rights cases going forward.

In the wake of a 2017 mass shooting at a concert in Las Vegas, the Trump administration passed a regulation to ban bump stocks – a device that enables a semiautomatic rifle to fire rounds much like a machine gun. Last week, the conservative-majority Court struck down that ban in Cargill v. Garland, stating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives overstepped its authority in classifying bump stocks as machine guns.

This October, students from three North Carolina law schools gathered at North Carolina Central University to participate in the fourth annual Legal Design Derby focused on access to justice. Co-hosted by the Duke Center on Law & Technology and the NCCU Tech Law & Policy Center, this human-centered design sprint provided students an opportunity to contribute their ideas to the new Legal Aid of North Carolina Innovation Lab. (Transcript forthcoming)

In this episode of the Duke Law Podcast, the Duke Center for Firearms Law (DCFL) discusses the oral argument in U.S. v Rahimi, which was heard in the Supreme Court on November 7. Rahimi is a pending case regarding the Second Amendment to the Constitution and whether allows the government to prohibit firearm possession by individuals subject to certain domestic violence restraining orders. DCFL Executive Director Andrew Willinger is guest host for this episode and is joined by DCFL faculty co-directors Joseph Blocher, the Lanty L. Smith ’67 Distinguished Professor of Law and Senior Associate Dean of Faculty and Research at Duke Law, and Darrell A. H. Miller, the Melvin G. Shimm Distinguished Professor of Law. Profs. Blocher and Miller are Second Amendment and constitutional law scholars and co-authors of “The Positive Second Amendment: Rights, Regulation, and the Future of Heller.”

​In this episode of the Duke Law Podcast, Andrew Willinger, executive director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, discusses 'United States v. Rahimi' – the first major Second Amendment case to be heard by the Court since its landmark ruling in 'New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen last summer' – leading up to the Supreme Court hearing oral argument on November 7.

The 'Rahimi' case has garnered national attention from gun rights advocates and Second Amendment scholars, as well as the general public, as it could potentially be the Court’s first opportunity to clarify certain aspects of its 'Bruen' test that have since divided lower-court judges. The Court’s decision in Rahimi may indicate how broad of an impact 'Bruen' will have in the years to come. 3L Sydney Colopy, a research assistant at the Center for Firearms Law, is the guest host. [Link to transcript forthcoming]

In 'Closing International Law's Innocence Gap,' Duke Law Clinical Professor Jayne Huckerby, Professor Laurence Helfer, and Professor Brandon Garrett argue that now is the time to close a gap in how national criminal legal systems address post-conviction claims of factual innocence. They build a substantive case for recognizing a new international human right and detail the advantages of doing such, offering derivative and freestanding approaches, as well as a framework for adapting the right to national models. Transcript available at https://bit.ly/42KpuVx

New research co-authored by Duke Law Professor Ben Grunwald, a scholar of criminal procedure, criminal law, and empirical methods, discovered a trend in law enforcement agencies' posts on Facebook that could be perpetuating the myth of Black criminality. Transcript at https://bit.ly/3MSDZCe.

In this episode of The Duke Law Podcast, Professor Nita Farahany, director of Duke Science & Society, discusses her new book, "The Battle for Your Brain," and her argument for a codified right to cognitive liberty with Clinical Professor Jeff Ward, director of the Duke Center on Law & Tech. Speakers: Duke Law Professor Nita Farahany at https://law.duke.edu/fac/farahany/, https://twitter.com/NitaFarahany, and https://www.nitafarahany.com/). Clinical Professor Jeff Ward at https://law.duke.edu/fac/jward/. Purchase and download the "The Battle for Your Brain" at https://shorturl.at/iEIKV. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3lDWShn

What is critical race theory and why has this decades old academic concept recently come under attack in the halls of Congress and local school board meetings? Three scholarly experts on race and the law provide answers: Part 1 provides an accurate definition of CRT and look back at when and why it began. We will also explore the contemporary attacks on CRT and the battlegrounds where these attacks are happening. In Part 2, our guests examine how CRT can used as a tool to better understand today's legal practices and policies, from policing, voting rights, and mass incarceration to social justice movement, the rule of law, and even the confirmation hearing of now-Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Transcript available at bit.ly/3gUx3qm.