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Guest Post: State Prosecutors, Protests, and Politics as Usual?

Professors Bruce A. Green and Rebecca Roiphe opine on the disqualification of a Santa Clara County prosecutor.

Josh Blackman | 5.15.2026 8:00 AM

I am happy to pass along a guest post from Professors Bruce A. Green and Rebecca Roiphe, who are experts in the ethical standards for prosecutors. They wrote about a recent case from Santa Clara, California, in which a judge disqualified District Attorney Jeff Rosen from prosecuting pro-Palestinian protestors who occupied the Stanford University.

When New York Attorney General Letitia James was campaigning for office, she called Donald Trump an "illegitimate president" and vowed to investigate him, his family, and anyone in his orbit. New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg was less explicit. While he emphasized his experience investigating Trump's family and promised to continue his predecessor's investigation into Trump, he also stated that he would follow the facts and law. Courts allowed James and Bragg to oversee cases against Trump, despite the fact that Trump himself along with some observers used these statements to claim that they were politically motivated.

In contrast, a California state judge recently concluded that an elected prosecutor went too far in campaigning for office and could no longer be trusted to make prosecutorial decisions free of political bias. On May 7, a Santa Clara County judge disqualified District Attorney Jeff Rosen and his entire office from prosecuting pro-Palestinian protestors who occupied the Stanford University President's office in 2024, citing campaign statements Rosen made the previous December while the case was pending. Specifically, Rosen proclaimed his commitment to the State of Israel and the Jewish people and included a link to information about the prosecution.  According to reporting, the judge found it problematic that Rosen had referred to the protests as antisemitic even though the individuals were not charged with hate crimes.

Local prosecutors are often elected, so their political engagement is unavoidable. Although prosecutors are not expected to be as disinterested........

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