John Pfaff
- Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
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Articles by John Pfaff
Don’t let Trump spark panic about election monitors
In July 2026, President Donald Trump's Department of Justice reportedly dispatched six federal prosecutors to oversee Arizona's primary elections, according to Democracy Docket, which cited records it had reviewed. The prosecutors were reportedly sent to the state's two most populous counties, Maricopa (home to Phoenix) and Pima (home to Tucson).
Tennessee botched its attempted execution of Christa Pike. It shouldn't try again.
On Wednesday evening, the state of Tennessee attempted to execute Christa Pike for a brutal murder she committed, with two accomplices, in 1995. In what Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, called “ unlike any other botched execution in the modern era ,” officials failed to execute Pike despite administering the execution drug, pentobarbital, twice.
Tennessee botched its attempted execution of Christa Pike. It shouldn’t try again.
On Wednesday evening, the state of Tennessee attempted to execute Christa Pike for a brutal murder she committed, with two accomplices, in 1995. In what Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, called "unlike any other botched execution in the modern era," officials failed to execute Pike despite administering the execution drug, pentobarbital, twice.
Greg Abbott is blocking Minnesota from holding an indicted ICE agent accountable
On Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Christian J. Castro allegedly shot Julio C. Sosa-Celis in the leg as Castro and other ICE agents chased a different man. The Hennepin County District Attorney's Office investigated, and in May, it indicted Castro on various assault and false-reporting charges.
DHS arms ICE agents with dangerous tool despite history of excessive violence
This past week, a notice posted by the Department of Homeland Security revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently entered into a $20 million no-bid contract with Compliant Technologies for "The G.L.O.V.E." The contract comes as ICE takes advantage of the billions in funding that Congress has awarded the agency since Donald Trump returned to the presidency.
The deadly ICE shooting in Maine is a consequence of the agency's shoddy hiring process
Last week, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Colombian national, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, during a traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine. While ICE has refused to name the officer who killed Guerrero, The Associated Press has identified him as David Brouillette.
The deadly ICE shooting in Maine is a consequence of the agency’s shoddy hiring process
Last week, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Colombian national, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, during a traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine. While ICE has refused to name the officer who killed Guerrero, The Associated Press has identified him as David Brouillette.
ICE deserves skepticism of its account of Houston shooting
Last Thursday, during a traffic stop in Houston, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who lived in the United States for 35 years.
ICE deserves skepticism of its account of Houston shooting
Last Thursday, during a traffic stop in Houston, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who lived in the United States for 35 years.
Kash Patel wrongly takes credit for falling crime rates
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Kash Patel wrongly takes credit for falling crime rates
Kash Patel wrongly takes credit for falling crime rates The FBI released a preliminary “First Look” at 2025 crime data this month, which showed significant drops over the year before. Compared to 2024, in 2025, homicides fell close to 20%, total violent crime fell almost 10% and property crime fell over 10%. These results are unequivocally good news, and they make clear that the steady decline in violent crime that began in late 2021 and early 2022 has continued — even into 2026.
Louisiana Republicans Are Taking Attacks on New Orleans Voters to a Shocking Place Original
Skip to the content Turning Raw Claims Into Reliable Knowledge Jurisprudence Angola Prison. This story was produced in partnership with Deep South Today, a network of nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsrooms in Louisiana and Mississippi. One of the less noted but still significant collateral costs of the contested 2000 election was that it cemented the “Red State vs. Blue State” metaphor in our national consciousness.
The FBI Is Obstructing the Minneapolis Probe. The ICE Shooter Should Still Be Very Worried. Original
Jurisprudence Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey speaks during a press conference on Wednesday, in Minneapolis, addressing a fatal shooting by an ICE agent. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.
The Trump administration’s ICE tactics in Chicago are finally raising alarms Original
On Sept. 9, 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago and suburban Cook County, purportedly to seize “criminal illegal aliens” who the agency claims flocked to Chicago because of Illinois’ sanctuary policies. The past two months, however, have made it clear that the actual effect has clearly been to harass, abuse and intimidate the residents of a city that Republicans in general — and President Donald Trump — in particular have distinctly loathed.
Opinion | ICE lowered its standards and is still struggling to hire officers Original
One of the signature provisions of the giant spending bill that congressional Republicans passed back in July was an astounding increase in the budget for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The bill allocated $170 billion over four years to the Department of Homeland Security, with $30 billion earmarked for ICE, making it arguably the most well-funded of all the federal law enforcement agencies.
ICE is struggling to hire officers — even after lowering its standards | Flipboard
As Trump talks of designating antifa a foreign terrorist group, experts see danger Earlier this month, President Trump hosted a roundtable at the White House about antifa, the far-left movement or ideology opposed to fascism. Some of the right-wing influencers gathered around the table urged him to designate antifa as a foreign terrorist organization. "Would you like to see it …
Opinion | Trump‘s megabill gives billions to ICE — but hiring 10,000 new agents won't be easy
The repercussions of the sprawling bill President Donald Trump signed into law last week will be felt for decades. Of immediate concern to many critics is approximately $170 billion the law gives to the Department of Homeland Security, including almost $30 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose agents have been at the forefront of Trump’s aggressive mass deportation efforts.
Opinion | Trump’s new executive order promises to ‘unleash’ law enforcement — but it won’t make us safer Original
This Monday, President Donald Trump issued yet another executive order, this one titled “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens.” As the ominous “unleashing” in the title makes clear, the order’s proposals, like so many “tough-on-crime” approaches, are far more about indulging in cruel punitiveness than in actually reducing crime. The order's opening line makes it clear that safety is not actually the goal.
Trump’s new executive order promises to ‘unleash’ law enforcement. It won’t make us safer.
17 hours ago Pam Bondi claims Donald Trump has saved 75% of American lives in first 100 days Pam Bondi has claimed that Donald Trump has saved the lives of 258 million Americans as she praised the president's first 100 days in office during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, 30 April. The Attorney General said that if not for Mr Trump, approximately 75 per cent of the US population would be dead due to 3,400 kilos of fentanyl having been seized since the Republican took office for his second term.
The Democrats Have a Crime Problem. Blame the Media.
In Democrats’ seemingly endless election postmortems—and in the postmortems on the postmortems—a persistent theme has been to blame the reddening of blue states like New York and New Jersey on crime in their big cities. On Pod Save America, the political commentator Ezra Klein emphasized the importance of taking crime seriously as a factor in voters’ decisions.
What is prison for?
In my first book, , I wrote a couple of pages about a guy named Johnnie Veal. When he was 17, in 1970, Johnnie was charged with a crime so terrible that it launched a Chicago public housing complex into international infamy. I spent years working on that book, and I never thought to interview Johnnie. I didn’t imagine a 17-year-old from 1970 could still be sitting in a prison cell a half-century later. Then a reader reached out to me. He said Johnnie, now a senior citizen, was still alive.
Crime Is Down. Kamala Is Up.
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Crime Is Down. Kamala Is Up. Original
In the first half of 2023, Boston had 18 homicides. In the first half of 2024, it had four—a 77 percent drop. Mesa, Arizona, saw a drop of more than 70 percent, from 21 to six. Homicides in New Orleans fell by almost 40 percent. In Baltimore City, Cleveland, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Phoenix, homicides declined by around 30 percent. These dramatic numbers come from a midyear crime report published by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, which takes data from 69 police and sheriffs’ departments.
The Biggest Myth About the 1994 Crime Bill Still Haunts Joe Biden. It Shouldn’t.
Articles > Commentary > The Biggest Myth About the 1994 Crime Bill Still Haunts Joe Biden. It Shouldn’t. This story was produced in partnership with Slate. This year marks the 30th birthday of one of the most notorious pieces of legislation from Bill Clinton’s presidency: the 1994 Crime Bill. Although many of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act’s provisions expired in the early 2000s, the bill took on new life during the 2016 presidential primaries.
Joe Biden’s Most Infamous Law Still Haunts Him. For All the Wrong Reasons.
Skip to the content Jurisprudence This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. This year marks the 30th birthday of one of the most notorious pieces of legislation from Bill Clinton’s presidency: the 1994 Crime Bill.
Joe Biden’s Most Infamous Law Still Haunts Him. For All the Wrong Reasons.
This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. This year marks the 30th birthday of one of the most notorious pieces of legislation from Bill Clinton’s presidency: the 1994 Crime Bill. Although many of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act’s provisions expired in the early 2000s, the bill took on new life during the 2016 presidential primaries.
New Laws Are Turning Police Into ‘Supercitizens’
New Laws Are Turning Police Into ‘Supercitizens’ Published May 8, 2024 This story was produced in partnership with The Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed two bills gutting the informal and formal oversight of the police.
New Laws Are Turning Police Into ‘Supercitizens’
This story was produced in partnership with The Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed two bills gutting the informal and formal oversight of the police.
How GOP state lawmakers are undermining reform prosecutors in blue cities.
Jurisprudence This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. In the post–George Floyd backlash to criminal justice reform, Republican-controlled state legislatures have used a tool called preemption to negate, override, or replace local laws.
This Poses an Existential Threat to Criminal Justice Reform
This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. In the post–George Floyd backlash to criminal justice reform, Republican-controlled state legislatures have used a tool called preemption to negate, override, or replace local laws.
Local Government Employees and the Opportunity Cost of Policing
An argument that I hear too often from various progressive reformers and those, like abolitionists, to their left is something along the lines of “police do not reduce crime.” It’s a frustrating argument to hear, because it is simply empirically untrue. Police do reduce crime, with perhaps the best study I’ve seen recently arguing that every 10 additional police officers prevent one murder and ~20 serious felonies.
Mass Shooters, Mental Illness, and a Critical Statistical Mistake
Every time there is a mass shooting event, opponents of gun control open with “thoughts and prayers,” and then quickly move on to mental illness, not the guns, being the issue. And it is true that many mass shooters suffer from mental illness; that is unambiguously the case with the recent mass murder in Maine. But there are two really big statistical flaws with this claim, one empirical and one conceptual.
Brass Tacks: Bill Bratton, Joseph Zayas and others propose policies and programs that could make a difference now
Six ways New York can spare more people from shootings today By William J. Bratton The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Bruen case last summer, overturning New York State’s Sullivan Law, has established a new landscape in the efforts to control gun violence. This is not so simply because the decision has made concealed carry of firearms far more likely in New York City.
The Florida GOP Has a New, Devious Way to Thwart Liberal Judges and Prosecutors
Jurisprudence This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. This summer, Republicans in Florida launched an under-the-radar, yet incredibly effective, attack on criminal justice reformers in the state. In mid-June, the Republican speaker of Florida’s House of Representatives asked the state Supreme Court to create a commission to look into redrawing judicial circuit borders.
The Florida GOP Has a New, Devious Way to Thwart Liberal Judges and Prosecutors
This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. This summer, Republicans in Florida launched an under-the-radar, yet incredibly effective, attack on criminal justice reformers in the state. In mid-June, the Republican speaker of Florida’s House of Representatives asked the state Supreme Court to create a commission to look into redrawing judicial circuit borders.
Dispatches From the Culture Wars - August 29, 2023
Dispatches From the Culture Wars – August 29, 2023 Published August 29, 2023 A Tale of Two Election Workers Dog Whistles at the GOP Debate A Bubbling Brew in Tacoma Democracy is Feminist Texas MAGAts Out to Lasso Cities Juggalos — An Oppressed Cultural Minority Longtermism Keeping Lake Michigan at Bay Why They Think Climate Crisis is Unbelievable Hip Hop at 50 A Tale of Two Election Workers By James Risen The Intercept Ruby Freeman and Misty Hampton had a few things in common.
Texas Takes Attacks on Austin to New Level With “Death Star” Law Original
Jurisprudence This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. On Sept. 1, a bill with the pithy title “An Act Relating to State Preemption of and the Effect of Certain State or Federal Law on Certain Municipal and County Regulation” will take effect in Texas. The bill —signed into law by Gov.
Biden’s Focus on Marijuana Is Part of the Problem
This story was published in partnership with Slate. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden released a three-prong plan to fulfill a campaign promise to roll back punishments for people convicted of marijuana possession.
Biden’s Focus on Marijuana Is Part of the Problem
Jurisprudence This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden released a three-prong plan to fulfill a campaign promise to roll back punishments for people convicted of marijuana possession.
Why Even Progressive Prosecutors Won’t Be Able to Keep Women Who Have Abortions Out of Jail
Jurisprudence This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v.
What the San Francisco DA Recall Really Tells Us
Jurisprudence And what it doesn’t. This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. The June 7 election to recall San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin it was clearly going to be interpreted as a national referendum on the idea of prosecutorial reform.
The Real Reason Democrats Can’t Agree on How to Address Rising Crime
This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the rise in shootings and homicides that began amid the turmoil of 2020 has undermined support for progressive-leaning criminal legal reform.
What an Analysis of 2,000 Shootings Tells Us About How to End Gun Violence
This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ “Blueprint to End Gun Violence” received an extraordinary amount of attention from the media and politicians, culminating in a visit from President Joe Biden on Feb. 3 to discuss the mayor’s strategies to combat gun crime in the city.
The Manhattan DA Started a Panic with Supposedly Soft-on-Crime Policies. His Critics Are Wrong.
Manhattan’s new District Attorney Alvin Bragg is facing intense criticism for a memo he sent to his office’s prosecutors telling them, among other things, to ask judges to send people to prison for only the most serious offenses, unless the law requires them to do otherwise.
Rittenhouse doesn't have to prove he acted in self-defense
Kyle Rittenhouse looks back before going on a break during his trail at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 15, 2021. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool) No one disputes that Kyle Rittenhouse, now 18 years old, shot three men and killed two of them during turbulent protests in Kenosha, Wis., that broke out after the shooting of a Black man by White police officers.
Murders spiked in 2020. More police is not the solution.
Following the recent release of the FBI’s crime data for 2020, which shows a 30 percent rise in homicides, proponents of the status quo in our criminal legal system doubled down on their demands to roll back reform and increase our investments in conventional policing strategies. This knee-jerk reaction reflects overly simplistic and outdated thinking about homicide. To break our over-reliance on policing, we need to reframe how we discuss homicide trends in the first place.
Can Criminal Justice Reform Survive a Violent Crime Wave?
John Pfaff The New Republic June 24, 2021 Last year was a disturbingly violent one for New York City, which suffered nearly 150 more homicides and around 750 more shootings than in 2019. The killings have been heartbreaking: a man on a handball court struck by a stray bullet, a one-year-old shot at a cookout. Meanwhile, the New York Police Department was quick to blame the violence on reform efforts that it has opposed for years.
Can Criminal Justice Reform Survive a Wave of Violent Crime?
An uptick in homicides across the country is getting blamed on reforms. That argument gets the data all wrong.
Can Criminal Justice Reform Survive a Wave of Violent Crime?
Last year was a disturbingly violent one for New York City, which suffered nearly 150 more homicides and around 750 more shootings than in 2019. The killings have been heartbreaking: a man on a handball court struck by a stray bullet, a one-year-old shot at a cookout. Meanwhile, the New York Police Department was quick to blame the violence on reform efforts that it has opposed for years.
The Greatest Threat To Defunding The Police? State Pre-emption.
A little-known legal tool allows states to override progressive policies in cities. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis responds to a question at a March 22 press conference in Melbourne, Florida. Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images John Pfaff Apr 29, 2021 Share A little-known legal tool allows states to override progressive policies in cities.
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