Legal Docket

We argued that a suspicionless body cavity search of a 12-year-old girl detained for a minor offense is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.

We argued that both Miller and Montgomery establish a presumption against imposing life without parole sentences on juveniles, who are categorically less culpable than adults. We further argued that imposing a life without parole sentence on a juvenile convicted of felony murder is unconstitutional because it attributes the same level of culpability and foreseeability to each participant in the crime regardless of their level of participation or neurological development.

We urged the court to grant Mr. Taylor’s habeas petition and clarify the process and standards for others similarly situated in light of the fact that Miller and Montgomery establish a presumption against life without parole.

Argued that the trial court abused its discretion by failing to give proper weight during transfer or sentencing to the age and related characteristics of a physically and sexually abused 15-year-old who participated in a murder with the adult who was abusing her.

Argued that mandatory lifetime sex offender registration applied to children is punishment in violation of the U.S. and the Illinois constitutional bans on the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment and due process.

Juvenile Law Center, with Public Interest Law Center and other amici, filed an amicus brief in the Florida Supreme Court on behalf of a 15-year-old child sentenced to concurrent 45 years sentences for nonhomicide offenses.

Juvenile Law Center, with co-counsel Kevin Allen of Crystle, Allen & Braught, has filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of a 12-year-old child subjected to a suspicionless strip search upon his admission to a juvenile detention center. Our petition urged the Court to take the case to clarify the appropriate standard for strip searches of children in juvenile detention centers.

Juvenile Law Center, with National Juvenile Defender Center, filed an amicus brief in the Ohio Supreme Court on behalf of a 16-year-old child transferred to adult court under Ohio’s mandatory transfer scheme.