14th Amendment
The Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas reversed a sex offense adjudication finding a violation of due process and the right to confrontation when a state investigator signaled to a child witness during their testimony at trial. The court stated in relevant part: “Rather than being a permissible support person, Dear, looking like Santa, interjected…
This complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado challenges Colorado’s practice of keeping dually involved youth detained on a delinquency case due to a lack of placement options in the state’s foster care system. The complaint raises substantive and procedural due process violations and seeks declaratory and injunctive relief. “The…
“In the Supreme Court’s recent United States v. Skrmetti (2025) decision, Justice Amy Coney Barrett raised the novel question: Does the United States have a long-standing history of de jure discrimination against transgender people, perpetrated by state actors through the force of law? This Essay provides the beginnings of an answer to Justice Barrett’s inquiry, demonstrating that throughout the…
The Court of Appeals of Wisconsin held that the state’s reverse waiver statute was unconstitutional “to the extent it does not require circuit courts to consider the unique attributes of youth identified by the United States Supreme Court.” In Wisconsin, a youth’s case that is directly filed in adult criminal court may be sent to…
This sample motion argues for special discovery and dismissal and/or suppression based on a claim of selective prosecution in a jaywalking case. Highlighting local police data on racial disparities in jaywalking-related stops, this motion argues that police conduct had a discriminatory effect on Black youth in Cincinnati, in violation of their state and federal equal…
This supplemental memorandum is related to the sample motion to dismiss and/or suppress evidence based on selective prosecution, which argues for special discovery and dismissal and/or suppression based on a claim of selective prosecution in a jaywalking case. This supplemental memorandum outlines Ohio’s Equal Protection guarantee in the context of the impact of implicit racial…
The Pennsylvania Superior Court vacated a sentence based on an objective appearance of bias where a former prosecutor against the co-defendant is now presiding as a judge over a related post conviction relief petition. The court stated in relevant part: “In reaching our conclusion, we emphasize that our standard of review is not whether Judge Reichley is…
“The Supreme Court upheld the criminalization of public survival by unhoused people in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson in June 2024. This article examines that decision and considers why Grants Pass had not enforced its camping ban against unhoused people when the author visited the city one year later. One important reason is that…
The California Supreme Court held that the imposition of punitive fines and ancillary costs ordered as part of a criminal sentencing raises equal protection issues that require courts to consider ability to pay before imposing fines and costs. The Court stated in relevant part: “In sum, in light of the Legislature’s provision of fee waivers…
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court’s summary judgment order, finding sufficient evidence for constitutional harm where a jail fails to classify or reclassify individuals who are detained based on their histories, leading to multiple assault incidents in the jail. The court stated in relevant part: “A municipality can be held liable…
“Suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests: These exclusionary and overly punitive disciplinary responses disproportionately impact Black students and have become normalized throughout the nation. In reality, school pushout, or the disciplinary sanction of removing students from the classroom, contravenes the very purpose of public education to prepare children to engage as full citizens in our democratic…
In October 2025, the Gault Center convened over three hundred youth defense lawyers and advocates at our annual Youth Defender Leadership Summit. Together, we practiced the cultivation of community in service of building a more just, more liberated, and more human humanity for all children and for us all. This resource captures the shared learnings…
“In the period of the 1960s through 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a set of canonical, key decisions expanding the constitutional doctrines of sexual liberty and privacy, equality, and substantive due process for women and sexual and gender minorities. The Court interpreted these principles to protect contraceptive use, abortion, interracial marriage, the private consumption…
The First District Court of Appeal in California held that defense counsel was ineffective for failing to present mitigation evidence at a resentencing hearing. The court stated in relevant part: “The judge might also have struck the enhancement as a reasonable response to the evidence of defendant’s intellectual disability and the abuse or neglect he…
“The right to have your day in court is foundational to the U.S. criminal legal system. Yet, many noncitizens in immigration detention facing criminal charges are denied this right when ICE routinely fails to produce immigration detainees to criminal court to resolve charges. In immigration proceedings, immigration judges regularly use those unresolved charges to detain…
The Gault Center released an update on the state of youth defense in Kansas, which centers the perspectives and experiences of young people impacted by the juvenile legal system, through a collaborative effort with Progeny, a youth-adult partnership in Kansas, TerraLuna Collaborative, a research consulting group, and Mulberry Art Gallery, which focuses on supporting emerging…
The Supreme Court of Minnesota ruled that due process requires an impartial judge and offered the following language in support. “We conclude by emphasizing that the Minnesota Constitution’s guarantee of due process includes the right to an impartial judge. Minn. Const. art. 1 § 7. We therefore clarify that our holding in this case—that due process…
This resource offers a brief overview of how children are transferred or bound over to adult court in Ohio and discusses what is at stake in the case of State v. D.T., 2024-Ohio-4482 (Ohio Ct. App. 2024) pending before the Ohio Supreme Court. The Gault Center filed an amicus in this case here. Oral arguments were…
The 10th District Ohio Court of Appeals reversed a judgment of voluntary manslaughter because the youth’s admission was not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily entered and offered the following language in support. “Ultimately, “[t]he purpose of Juv.R. 29(D) is to ensure that any decision by the accused to forgo his or her constitutional right to a trial,…
Youth defenders play a critical role in safeguarding the constitutional rights of noncitizen youth during encounters with immigration officials. This tip sheet provides an overview of the rights of noncitizen youth and strategies for youth defenders to safeguard these rights and mitigate harm throughout the course of representing youth in juvenile court. This tip sheet…
The concurring opinion of the Indiana Supreme Court outlines the standard for youth defense counsel under the 14th Amendment and offers the following language. “A juvenile‘s right to the effective assistance of counsel is the same right an adult enjoys for criminal prosecutions, and juveniles enjoy the right for the same reasons as adults: “The juvenile needs the assistance of counsel…
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals found that a liberty interest may exist for short periods of solitary confinement in deplorable conditions and offered the following language in support. “Jackson presented evidence showing that he was subjected to three months in appalling conditions of solitary confinement at Pontiac. Taking that evidence as true, Jackson had…
