In an important win for children who may face transfer to adult court, the Oregon State Supreme Court today interpreted the state’s transfer statute to require juvenile courts to consider juveniles’ unique emotional and intellectual capacities before they may be transferred to adult court. In doing so, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remanded the case of State v. J.C.N.-V. back to the juvenile court for consideration under the proper interpretation of the standard.
In a key win for individuals nationwide who are serving life without parole sentences for crimes committed as children, the United States Supreme Court today ruled 6-3 in Montgomery v. Louisiana that their 2012 decision inMiller v. Alabama, barring mandatory life without parole sentences for youth, applies retroactively. Today’s decision guarantees that 69-year-old Henry Montgomery, along with as many as 2,000 others serving similar mandatory life without parole sentences, will receive new sentencing hearings or be considered for parole.
Governor Wolf is expected to soon sign a second bill into law to help vulnerable foster youth better succeed. Act 75 of 2015 was signed into law on December 10th and HB 1603 will be signed within days. Both bills are in response to the federal Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, which mandates states to implement policies that protect youth from harm and improve their ability to develop skills, talents and connections with family and community.
Washington, D.C. – President Obama today signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which is the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the first major overhaul of federal education law in over a decade.
Washington, D.C. - The United States Senate has approved a groundbreaking amendment to the Every Child Achieves Act, a bi-partisan bill reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
Juvenile Law Center is pleased to announce that Susan Vivian Mangold, Professor of Law at SUNY Buffalo Law School, will become its next Executive Director effective October 14, 2015.
Late yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania granted plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment against former Luzerne County Juvenile Court Judge Mark Ciavarella, the judge at the center of the now infamous 'kids for cash' scandal. Specifically, U.S. District Court Judge A. Richard Caputo found that Ciavarella violated the constitutional rights of the children who appeared before him to an impartial tribunal, as guaranteed by the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
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