4th Amendment
The Delaware Family Court granted a youth’s suppression motion, finding that age and race must be considered when determining whether a seizure has occurred under the Fourth Amendment. The court states in relevant part: “Children are not adults. In J.D.B. v. North Carolina, the Supreme Court decided that children should not be treated like adults for the purposes of…
From the abstract: “This Note provides a general review of the current state of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT), including Illinois state regulation and past federal regulation attempts. This Note asserts that even as datasets become more diverse and “fairer,” FRT may still have discriminatory impacts on minority populations, as evidenced by a few highlighted examples…
From the abstract: This Article employs the Law Review’s Discourse symposium on my book, Unreasonable: Black Lives, Police Power, and the Fourth Amendment, as a starting point to foreground and elaborate on an idea that I reference in that text: police power abolition. The Article begins by describing the central insight that motivates Unreasonable—namely, that…
The Appeals Court of Massachusetts affirmed a defendant’s motion to suppress involving an anonymous tip saying they saw a person who had waved a gun. The court stated in relevant part: “Here, the motion judge found that the anonymous witness’s basis of knowledge was adequately established because the witness saw the person with the firearm…
An appellate court in Washington reversed a trial court’s denial of a young person’s motion to suppress a firearm as a fruit of an unlawful Terry stop. This case involved misidentification by the police officers of three youth of color and the court stated in relevant part: SH-M argues that the trial court erred when…
The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey heard two Motions to Dismiss filed by the Plainfield Public School District, Board of Education, and others, stemming out of a lawsuit filed by fifteen-year-old I.A.’s parents after the detention, search, arrest and prosecution of I.A., by Plainfield school officials and Plainfield Police Officers. In…
The Supreme Court of Maine vacated a conviction, finding that custodial statements should have been suppressed because there was no waiver of the privilege against self-incrimination, and offered the following language in support. “McLain did not clearly waive his privilege against self-incrimination and instead answered that it “depend[ed] on the questions” when asked if he…
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…
From the introduction: “Although the Fourth Amendment grants the Supreme Court power over searches and seizures, it would be unrealistic to turn to the Court for help. In theory, the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule shapes future police behavior by excluding evidence from trials if the police obtained it unlawfully. However, when it comes to racial…
From the abstract: “The integration of algorithmic decision making and artificial intelligence (“AI”) into facial recognition technology poses new, unprecedented risks to privacy and individual autonomy rights, particularly in urban settings. The murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in New York City on December 4, 2024, provides a timely case study to examine the…
Professor Kris Henning and Rebba Omer authored a law review article on decriminalizing normal adolescent behaviors, race, and disabilities. This article maps a way forward for all system actors in the juvenile legal system to mitigate and buffer against the harms of juvenile legal system involvement for youth with disabilities. Specifically, this article outlines youth…
