article thumbnail

Court Rulings Prod Expansion of Gun Rights Across U.S. 

The Crime Report

.” Recent rulings in lower courts across the country have mirrored Thomas’s guidance to stay consistent with how states have historically regulated gun ownership, striking down gun restrictions involving young adults, people facing felony charges, and makers of homemade guns.

article thumbnail

How The Supreme Court Changed Juvenile Justice

The Crime Report

An increasing number of Americans now believe US Supreme Court decision-making is based more on political ideology than the rule of law. Evidence that this disturbing trend is true can be found when taking a closer look at the shift in how the Court has dealt with juvenile cases dating back to 2005.

Court 135
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Animal rights and the First Amendment, due process and a confession of error

SCOTUSBlog

Texas , involving allegations that a racially biased juror, who commented during voir dire that “non-white” races were statistically more violent than whites, served on petitioner Kristopher Love’s capital sentencing jury. Some older Supreme Court decisions support that theory of consent. Texas , 21-6001.

Statute 103
article thumbnail

RICO injury, federal jurisdiction, and giving veterans the benefit of the doubt

SCOTUSBlog

One of those four involves an issue on which the court already is considering 11 other relisted cases: whether the Sixth and 14th Amendments require the use of a 12-person jury to try defendants accused of felonies, rather than the six-person jury Florida affords for many such offenses. relisted after the Apr. Florida and Moore v.

Felony 103
article thumbnail

Judicial Clemency Does Not Forgive Sex Offender Registration

The Crime Report

In a 6-3 decision Ex parte Danny Richard Lane , the state’s highest criminal appeals court ruled that Texas’ historical doctrine of “judicial clemency” does not forgive sex offender registration. The Texas Legislature in 1991 enacted the state’s first sex offender registration program. Lane did not keep the appointment.

Statute 119
article thumbnail

Supreme Court once again considers the “categorical approach” to sentencing enhancements

SCOTUSBlog

And the court denied review to a group of 13 much-relisted cases that raised the question whether felony defendants have a constitutional right to a 12-person jury rather than just a six-person one. Justice Neil Gorsuch filed an opinion dissenting from the denial of cert , arguing that the court’s 1970 decision in Williams v.

Court 84
article thumbnail

Supreme Court takes Clean Water Act case

SCOTUSBlog

And over a dissent by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the justices declined to decide whether the Constitution guarantees the right to a trial by a 12-person jury when the defendant is charged with a felony. The question came to the court in the case of Natoya Cunningham , who was convicted by a six-person jury and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Court 116