Legal Docket

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.

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.

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.

Argued that sentences of life without the possibility of parole for juveniles convicted of homicide are unconstitutional in light of Miller and that Miller applies retroactively.

Amici challenged a lower court’s holding limiting relief available via Pennsylvania’s summary offense expungement statute to only a narrow class of petitioners.

Argued that sentences of 133 years and 68 years for juveniles convicted of nonhomicide offenses, with only the possibility of geriatric release, are unconstitutional as they fail to provide a meaningful opportunity to obtain release as mandated by Graham v. Florida.

Argued that, given the significance of the child’s liberty interests at stake, due process requires appointment of counsel for children in dependency proceedings.