14th Amendment
Outlines steps that states must take to comply with the minimum requirements of the U.S. Constitution to protect the rights of youth facing deprivations of liberty.
School-based arrests have long made up a substantial number of cases in the juvenile legal system. As a result, youth defenders often represent clients who have been seized, searched, or interrogated on school grounds. This guide provides a general overview of the law governing school seizures, searches, and interrogations and practice tips for challenging evidence…
Young people and their families are routinely assessed fees, fines, and other costs in delinquency matters. These financial assessments are often ordered without an ability-to-pay analysis by the court. A young person’s inability to pay can lead to long-lasting consequences, increased recidivism, and youth and their families having to choose between paying fees or buying…
From the executive summary: “• Police increasingly replace stop-and-frisk practices with databases that crudely profile Black and Latinx youth based on their neighborhoods, peer groups, and clothing. • These databases ruin lives: police typecast minority youths as gang members without evidence, putting them at risk of false arrest and wrongful deportation. • Many police departments…
The Court considers a question of first impression — whether a criminal defendant must be provided in-person interpreting services, rather than video remote interpreting (VRI) services, at his jury trial.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in a civil lawsuit addressing the constitutional rights of youth who had been adjudicated delinquent and transferred to the Louisiana State Penitentiary’s former death row building, known as Angola. In their statement, the United States asserted that youth are particularly vulnerable to harmful conditions of…
This article traces the history of racist gun laws and how they interact with the Second Amendment, highlighting the racially disproportionate impact of gun charges on Black and Latine communities. Relevant language from the article includes: “As the courts increasingly look to history and tradition to determine the scope of the right to keep and…
Creates a case for holding states liable for abdicating their duty to ensure that all children have zealous representation.
On April 14, 2022, the DOJ filed a complaint against the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice for depriving youth confined in the Broad River Road Complex facility of their constitutional rights. The complaint highlights Fourteenth Amendment violations, namely that the Department of Juvenile Justice “(i) failed to reasonably protect children from youth-on-youth violence; and…
On April 14, 2022, the DOJ released its investigation findings of South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice’s Broad River Road Complex. The investigation finds “, that there is reasonable cause to believe, based on the totality of the conditions, practices, and incidents, that: (1) the conditions at the Broad River Road Complex (BRRC), South Carolina’s…
On April 14, 2022, the DOJ entered into a settlement agreement with the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice to remedy conditions that violated young people’s constitutional rights at the Broad River Road Complex facility. The settlement agreement includes provisions that the Department “shall, at all times, provide youth at BRRC with safe living conditions,”…
On December 21, 2021, the DOJ released its investigation of the Connecticut Manson Youth Institution, finding that the conditions violate young people’s rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In its Investigation, the DOJ stated “specifically, we find that Manson’s isolation practices and inadequate mental health services seriously…
