LIBERTY HAS A NEW CHAMPION ON THE FEDERAL BENCH.

• Author: Root, Damon
• Position: LAW

DON WILLETT FIRST rose to fame as a liber-tarian-leaningTexas Supreme Court justice who penned constitutional defenses of economic freedom. Since joining the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in late 2017, Willett has been making a name for himself in another area of the law: criminal justice reform.

In August 2018, Willett took aim at the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial doctrine of qualified immunity, which shields police officers and other government officials from being sued when they violate citizens' constitutional rights. "To some observers, qualified immunity smacks of unqualified impunity, letting public officials duck consequences for bad behavior," Willett wrote in a concurring opinion in Zadeh v. Robinson. "I add my voice to a growing, cross-ideological chorus of jurists and scholars urging recalibration of contemporary immunity jurisprudence."

Next, in October, Willett wrote a unanimous 5th Circuit ruling that voided three "special conditions" for supervised release imposed upon a criminal defendant at sentencing. The problem here was that the federal district court failed to "orally enumerate each condition," thus preventing the defendant from having a "meaningful opportunity to object" at his sentencing, and thereby running afoul of both due process and the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment. As Willett explained in United States v. Rivas-Estrada, that "requirement isn't formalistic. It's practical....The point is to give fair notice."

Finally, also in October...