Posts in 'Amicus Curiae'

Argued that the PA Juvenile Act authorizes child welfare courts to retain jurisdiction over foster children aged 18 to 21 and to order agencies to continue to serve those youth in a course of treatment or instruction.

Certiorari denied in case involving Miranda warnings and whether a youth’s right to a jury trial was violated by a law allowing the imposition of adult sentences on the basis of judicial fact-finding.

Briefed the issue of right to counsel for juveniles and the procedures that must be brought to bear before waiver is granted.

Argued against Colorado’s “direct file” statute on the grounds that it violates equal protection guarantees, contravenes separation of powers principles, and denies a defendant due process where statute allows sentencing as an adult following conviction for a crime that would not have made him eligible for adult prosecution.

Juvenile Law Center briefed the issue of a juvenile’s consent to a search of his home and voluntary waiver of his Miranda rights.

Briefed the issue of a juvenile’s right to have his name removed from a statewide central register as a perpetrator of child abuse.

Texas capital sentencing statute that prevented juries from considering evidence of childhood trauma found unconstitutional in that it precluded giving consideration and effect to relevant mitigating evidence.

Juvenile Law Center briefed and argued the question of the constitutionality of a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole imposed on a 17-year-old in Alabama.

Argued that a 12-year-old’s sentence of 30 years without the possibility of parole violates the Eighth Amendment.

Argued that the court should recognize a youth’s constitutional right to a jury trial when he faces public sex offender registration upon conviction of sex offenses under Kansas’ juvenile court statute.