Posts in 'Amicus Curiae'

Argued that Ohio’s sex offender registration law should be held unconstitutional as applied to children tried in juvenile court.

Argued that because Romero was an adolescent with no attorney, no other adult tasked with advocating for him, and had not even been informed by his own attorney that he had a right to appeal, he lacked adequate access to the courts. Therefore, jurisdictional limitations should be tolled during the period of his minority.

Argued that Kentucky state law and established public policy disfavor adjudicating a minor child delinquent of sexual misconduct and possession and viewing of child pornography when consensual sexual contact and exchange of sexually explicit text messages occurs between two teens who are both below the age of consent.

Argued in support of Washington State’s standard for sealing juvenile records because it is aligned with U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence in treating child offenders differently than adults and making it easier for children to seal their records upon completion of their sentences.

Juvenile Law Center filed an amicus brief in the Ohio Supreme Court on behalf of Brandon Moore, who received a sentence of 112 years for non-homicide offenses he committed when he was only 15 years-old.

Argued that the juvenile court erred by waiving its jurisdiction of a youth and transferring the youth to adult court based on the charged offense alone, without an individualized determination of the youth's maturity, culpability, and capacity for change.

Argued that rulings on discretionary transfers from juvenile to adult criminal court are subject to immediate appeal.

Challenging a Kentucky juvenile detention center’s policy of conducting suspicionless strip searches on juveniles arrested on minor violations

Argued that the U.S. Supreme Court's ban on mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles in Miller should apply retroactively to inmates like Mares, who was sentenced prior to the Miller ruling.

Argued that the U.S. Supreme Court's ban on mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles in Miller should apply retroactively to inmates like Soto, Tulloch, Dingman, and Lopez, who were sentenced prior to the Miller ruling.