Blazer Briefs

Joanna Schwartz is a Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law where she teaches Civil Procedure and a variety of courses on police accountability and public interest lawyering. She is one of the country's leading experts on police misconduct litigation. I interview Ms. Schwartz on the 2020-2021 NSDA Policy Debate Resolution: "Resolved: The United States federal government should enact substantial criminal justice reform in the United States in one or more of the following: forensic science, policing, sentencing." Among other areas, Schwartz is a specialist on Qualified Immunity , a Supreme Court policy that "protects a government official from lawsuits alleging that the official violated a plaintiff's rights, only allowing suits where officials violated a 'clearly established' statutory or constitutional right." The policy was upheld in the unanimous 2009 Pearson v. Callahan decision. Her study How Qualified Immunity Fails  has been used as one of the...

I interview Mr. Clark Neily, Vice President of Criminal Justice at the libertarian Cato Institue about the NSDA 2020-2021 Policy Debate resolution: "Resolved: The United States federal government should enact substantial criminal justice reform in the United States in one or more of the following: forensic science, policing, sentencing." He discusses qualified immunity for police officers, accountability in the criminal justice system, problems with federal action, and which areas we should prioritize with reform efforts. A.J. Camacho: Hello, debaters. I am A.J. Camacho and welcome to the very first installment of Blazer Briefs, where I go directly to the experts to ask them questions about the specific national topic. Now, today, I'm going to look at the policy debate topic for the 2020-21 season, and that is resolved to the United States federal government to enact substantial criminal justice reform in the United States in one or more of the following: forensic scien...

At Blazer Briefs, I follow the active NSDA debate resolutions and fill a unique hole in the market for debate briefs: I go directly to the experts and ask them questions specific to the resolution. The briefs are, for now at least, available free of charge for all debaters. Please enjoy and don't hesitate to email me if you have any inquiries or recommendations. Blazer Briefs is run by me, Francisco "A.J." Camacho, a freshman at The George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. As a public forum debater in High School, I attended TOC (the Tournament of Champions) twice and was ranked best in PF in the state of Tennessee by the National Speech and Debate Association.