Eve Brensike Primus

Check out this MDefenders resource designed to help public defenders bring social science into criminal courtrooms. Data for Defenders collects cutting-edge social science research and helps defenders incorporate it into their advocacy: datafordefenders.org

The CA Independent Comm'n on Public Defense had its first meeting last week. Such a privilege to be w/people who care about this, understand it is a public safety issue, and want to fix CA's broken system. Learn more: davisvanguard.org/2026/10/cali.... And: www.justiceforallca.org/public-infor....

Today's blog post: "California Court Reverses Felony Murder Conviction, Finding Forcible Cutting of Human Hair is Battery, Not Robbery": evidenceprofblog.com/2026/10/12259/

Here's a neat one: The Federal Public Defender's Office for the District of the Virgin Islands is hiring an appellate attorney! Full-time remote work is a possibility, but why wouldn't you want to live in the USVI?! www.fd.org/sites/defaul...

Delighted to say that the American Society of Legal Writers has named *The Oldest Constitutional Question* one of the best works of legal scholarship published in 2025. I’ll talk about writing the book & accept an award today at noon in Hutchins Hall 120 (lunch provided!). @umichlaw.bsky.social

A federal district judge just declared that Flock camera systems violate the Fourth Amendment! Applying Chatrie, the court concludes that extensive camera networks engage in unlawful "indiscriminate mass surveillance." A major ruling. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Arizona Court of Appeals reverses defendant's sentence for his manslaughter conviction, finding that AI victim impact statement was "a depiction of the victim and his thoughts created from the imaginings of the victim’s sister." coa1.azcourts.gov/Portals/1/Op...

Attn: @umichlaw.bsky.social and @mdefenders.bsky.social is hiring a Clinical Assistant Professor of Law/Associate Director for the new MDefenders Center for Public Defense. Job posting here: careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2.... Come work w/me to train the next generation of public defenders!

Use of a cell-site simulator is a Fourth Amendment search under Chatrie and Carpenter, Fourth Circuit holds, agreeing w/ Maryland courts. (But also, there is QI here, as no federal court of appeals has reached the issue yet and this occurred back in 2014.) www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/181...

An incredible Public Defender Training Institute Retreat this weekend preparing students for careers in indigent defense. Thanks to amazing cofacilitators Rick Barinbaum Saeeda Joseph-Charles Blase Kearney & Anna Yaldo for your time wisdom & thoughtful feedback michigan.law.umich.edu/public-defen...

I am so thrilled to announce that MDefenders has received this grant. We are very excited about what this funding will do to enable us to grow and expand. Go Blue!

This is such a tremendous program! Any one of these events would be more than I had access to in law school, and they've got a whole semester full of them! No wonder that all the UM alum defenders I know are excellent.

Attention @umichlaw.bsky.social students: if you are interested in public defense or criminal legal system reform, please check out the MDefenders calendar of events below and join us!

So it is Orientation week @umichlaw.bsky.social, and I have the pleasure and honor of leading one of this year's initial sessions on how to prepare for law school classes. I can't wait to meet all of the incoming 1Ls and talk to them about the three-year journey ahead.

Divided 4th Circuit: The warrant to search a house was so lacking in probable cause here—as it failed to show a nexus between the drug activity and this home—that the good faith exception does not apply. Per Benjamin w/Gregory; Heytens dissents. www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/224...

Although asking a person for ID does not trigger a 4th Amendment seizure, an officer telling a person who has refused the request that the officer is making a lawful order requiring the person to hand over the ID *does* trigger a seizure, CA2 holds. ww3.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/OP...

I am halfway through my day of meeting individually with all of the rising 3L public defender students @umichlaw.bsky.social. They are such an impressive group. Look out PD world! You got some gems coming your way.

The California Supreme Court threw out a guilty plea from a woman who did not understand that a conviction would jeopardize her immigration status. cal.news/3SGcP6Z 📸 Jeff Chiu, AP

Thank you @statecourtreport.org Kathrina Wolfkot @brennancenter.org, discussing faulty forensic evidence at trial as a due process violation even in states w/out junk science writs. Sotomayor's McCrory concurrence signals state legislatures to adopt junk science writs, too. tinyurl.com/mvtsk4st

For those of you interested to urge your state courts to chart an independent course, feel free to reach out. Here’s the amicus brief by the ACLU of MI and the national ACLU in the Michigan case: www.aclu.org/cases/people...

The disaster with the WA Bar Exam is awful. Students worked hard & now their start dates are pushed back. WA needs to grant diploma privilege admission to those who satisfy minimal requirements w/respect to law school performance or give provisional licenses now. www.spokesman.com/stories/2026...

Such a pleasure to join @pdefenselesspod.bsky.social & talk about my article: "Waiting for Justice: Unconstitutional Delays in the Appointment of Criminal Defense Counsel." Defense attorneys in places with appointment delays can read more about what they can do here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Major Fourth Amendment win. Geofence queries are searches violating a reasonable expectation of privacy and requiring a warrant. Huge implications that digital Is different for the Fourth Amendment. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Here are my 10 big takeaways from Chatrie – this term’s biggest Fourth Amendment case. The stakes were high. The US government argued that they could obtain any location data from anyone for any reason without a warrant. The Supreme Court rejected that argument. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Govt gets warrant for two weeks of records, but provider overproduces and sends extra records. Connecticut SCT: Whether or not the provider was a state actor here, 4A requires a 2nd warrant before the government can retain & use overproduced records. www.jud.ct.gov/external/sup...

A new commission made up of legislators, public defenders, academics and advocates seeks to push California to begin providing resources and enforcing minimum standards for county public defender systems. cal.news/4vb5cU9 📸 Miguel Gutierrez Jr.

After Bruen established 2nd Amendment limits on criminal laws on gun possession, police observing a person in possession of a gun do not automatically have reasonable suspicion to stop them for illegal gun possession, Appellate Court of Maryland rules. mdcourts.gov/data/opinion...

Anonymous tip about felon with a gun leads to traffic stop and discovery of the gun. Prosecution puts on evidence of the tip at trial to explain the stop and officers' public safety concerns. CA8: Admitting tip violated Confrontation Clause, reversed. ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/26/06...

New Data for Defenders: a motion seeking to preclude use of the term “victim,” arguing that the label presupposes guilt and undermines the presumption of innocence datafordefenders.org

Holding 17 year old for seven hours alone, refusing his requests to see his mother, claiming they had video evidence, and threatening the death penalty made resulting confession of committing two murders involuntary and inadmissible, Tenn SCT rules. www.tncourts.gov/sites/defaul...

The US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a Black death-row inmate in Mississippi who alleged racial bias in the makeup of the jury that convicted him. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion, joined by Justices John Roberts, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Md SCT: The government can't use data about an area being a high-crime neighborhood to help justify a stop if the officer didn't know of the specific data when he made the stop. If it was learned later, it can't be part of the suspicion calculus. www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinion... #N

In Andrew v. White, the Court said “certain principles are fundamental enough that when new factual permutations arise, the necessity to apply the earlier rule will be beyond doubt," and state courts will have no excuse for ignoring that law. I hope federal habeas courts take that language to heart.

So proud of the @mdefenders.bsky.social Class of 2026. Our graduation ceremony was standing room only & filled with laughter, tears, & well wishes for these outstanding client-centered advocates. We are all so proud of you and can't wait to see all the good trouble that you will make in the world!

Excited to be presenting at the Criminal Ethics Schmooze at Fordham Law this morning about the structure of indigent defense delivery and how we can and should talk about horizontal vs vertical defense.

“[B]ail must generally be set in an amount that is reasonably attainable, in order to effectuate the defendant’s constitutional right to pretrial release on bail.” Amazing victory.

What an incredible group of @mdefenders.bsky.social students in the Public Defender Training Institute this year. I can't wait to see what they will do on and off the court after they graduate this spring!