#grand-juries

#grand-juries

The entrance to the Supreme Court building announces "Equal Justice Under Law," but it hasn't felt like SCOTUS represented that American value for quite some time—roughly since Bush v. Gore in December 2000, even more so since gutting the Voting Rights Act in Shelby in 2013, and especially since the John Roberts court declared, in 2024, that the president is immune from punishment for "official acts," even those demonstrably illegal, while in office.

Federal grand juries return indictments in the overwhelming majority of cases, about 99.9 percent, according to the best estimates. The prosecution controls every aspect of the proceedings, while the defendant has no opportunity to object or present their case; there's a reason lawyers joke that a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich. It is historic, and quite possibly unprecedented, for federal prosecutors to face so many rebukes in such a short span of time.

But Donald Trump's desire to crack down on crime in Washington, D.C., seems to have come at the cost of that good judgment. Over the past month, federal prosecutors in D.C. have failed at least five times to persuade a grand jury to indict a D.C. resident for allegedly attacking federal law enforcement. These are not the only embarrassments suffered recently by federal prosecutors in the District,