Trump’s Crime Crackdown Highlights Judge Vacancy Crisis Pushing D.C. Courts to the Brink
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The Trump administration has touted its crime crackdown in Washington, D.C., in recent weeks, with increased arrest numbers and reduced violent crime. But the surge of resources to the nation's capital hasn't extended to its courts, which have been hampered by judicial vacancies that have led to a backlog of cases and slowed the administration of justice.
External Links
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dc-court-vacancies-trump-crime-crackdown/
Source Publication
CBS News
Repository Citation
Tianna N. Gibbs,
Trump’s Crime Crackdown Highlights Judge Vacancy Crisis Pushing D.C. Courts to the Brink,
CBS News
(2025).
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/pub_disc_media/652
COinS
Comments
"This is urgent," said Tianna Gibbs, a law professor at American University in Washington who studies access to justice issues. "We have a lot on the line: the administration of justice, access to justice and public confidence in the courts as a forum that can fairly and efficiently resolve their disputes.". . .
"It feels like a problem where the grievance is not going to get to the person who has control of moving the levers in the process," said Gibbs, the American University law professor. "It feels like D.C. has been forgotten in this way and there's no way to appeal to the powers that be to address the problem." . . .
"The issue is that there's just this divide where the people who do have control over the process don't understand the impact that the delay in confirmations is having on D.C. families. And then the D.C. families don't understand how the process is working," Gibbs said. "In their eyes, the delay is the problem of the court. Families begin to view the court as a broken system that doesn't meet the commitment that it has to the public, which is to administer justice in a way that is efficient, that is fair, that allows families to have the opportunity to be heard before the court."