U.S. Supreme Court – Page 44 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

SCOTUS to Revisit Life Without Parole for Juveniles

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:November 8, 2011
Post category:Criminal Law & Process Public U.S. Supreme Court

Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in two new cases that will test the limits of the Court’s important 2010 ruling in Graham v. Florida, which banned the sentence of life without possibility of parole for most juvenile offenders. Graham recognized an exception, however, for juveniles convicted of homicide. It is this exception that is at issue in the two new cases, both of which involve fourteen-year-old killers.

The two cases are Miller v. Alabama (opinion below: 63 So. 3d 676 (Ala. Crim. App. 2010)) and Jackson v. Hobbs (2011 Ark. 49). The question granted in each case is the same, and they are to be argued together. It appears that the defendants are presenting a categorical challenge to the constitutionality of “LWOP” as applied to fourteen-year-olds.

A Belated Review of Criminal Cases in the Supreme Court Last Term

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:November 5, 2011
Post category:Criminal Law & Process Public U.S. Supreme Court

At Life Sentences Blog, I’ve just finished a series of posts reviewing the Supreme Court’s criminal cases from last term. In light of their belated nature, I have not cross-posted them, but here are the links:

Severability and the Erie Doctrine

Post author:Ryan Scoville
Post published:October 11, 2011
Post category:Federalism Public U.S. Supreme Court

“Severability” doctrine holds that where a statute is partially unconstitutional, a reviewing court can excise the unconstitutional part rather than declare the entire statute invalid, if consistent with legislative intent. The doctrine figures centrally in a broad array of constitutional litigation, including ongoing litigation over the “individual mandate” provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And the doctrine is powerful because the viability of large statutory schemes can hinge entirely on whether an unconstitutional component is severable.

But while important, severability is in many ways perplexing and underexplored. No one has come up with a fully satisfying test for determining when severance is appropriate. And no one, as far as I can tell, has critically examined choice-of-law rules pertaining to the doctrine’s application.