Posts in 'Amicus Curiae'

Juvenile Law Center filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court of Ohio on behalf of 12-year-old D.S. Juvenile Law Center argued that Ohio's gross sexual imposition statute – designed in part to protect children who are under age 13 from adult sexual predators – is unconstitutional when applied to children, particularly children who allegedly engage in sexual contact with a peer of similar age.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

According to the lower court, the child victim is also the perpetrator of a sex crime against himself. 

Argued that a ten-year-old is unlikely to fully understand and appreciate the nature of his Miranda rights and should not be able to waive them on his own.

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.