ALL POSTS
Is Mural Art Moral Graffiti?: Determining The Standards Of Criminality For Street Artists
Recent regulations criminalizing graffiti are meant to deter vandalism and clean up streets from unauthorized markings. But is the law missing something by assuming that graffitists are criminals and vandals rather than suppressed, underpaid artists?
A Failed Gamble: The Supreme Court’s Affirmation of the Dual-Sovereignty Doctrine in Gamble v. United States
“In November 2015, Terrence Gamble was driving in Mobile, Alabama, when he was pulled over by a police officer because of a damaged headlight on his vehicle. Approaching the vehicle, the officer noticed an odor of marijuana emanating from Gamble’s car, leading the officer to search the vehicle. The officer’s search uncovered a loaded nine-millimeter handgun. Because of Gamble’s prior conviction for second-degree robbery, he was arrested for violating Alabama’s felon-in-possession statute, which provides that no person convicted of “a crime of violence” “shall own a firearm or have one in his or her possession.” Gamble pled guilty to the offense. In most criminal cases, this is where the story ends. A sentence is imposed, a judgment is entered, and no further proceedings take place. This, however, was not the average criminal case.”
When Rehabilitation Becomes Punitive, Incarcerated Minors Lack Major Rights
Because delinquency hearings are labeled as “civil” rather than criminal, some rights that are guaranteed to adults in criminal proceedings do not extend to youth tried in juvenile court. When determining which constitutional rights should be incorporated into the juvenile court system, courts consider the Due Process Clause’s guarantee of “fundamental fairness.” Under this “Fundamental Fairness Test,” the Supreme Court found that the Sixth Amendment’s right to trial by jury does not extend to juvenile courts . . . However, the Supreme Court’s decisions on juvenile adjudication were made in the 1960s and 1970s, “prior to the explicit movement towards punitive juvenile justice.”
Little Fish, Big Protection
“The Endangered Species Act provides an incredible amount of legal protection. Someone could potentially go to prison for a whole year and be fined a whopping $50,000 for harming just one single pupfish… And that is precisely what happened.”