The U.S. state of Washington enforced capital punishment until the state's capital punishment statute was declared null and void and abolished in practice by a state Supreme Court ruling on October 11,2018. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional as applied due to racial bias however it did not render the wider institution of capital punishment unconstitutional and rather required the statute to be amended to eliminate racial biases. From 1904 to 2010,78 people were executed by the state;the last was Cal Coburn Brown on September 10,2010. In April 2023,Governor Jay Inslee signed SB5087 which formally abolished capital punishment in Washington State and removed provisions for capital punishment from state law.
Stanley v. Georgia,394 U.S. 557 (1969),was a U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped to establish an implied "right to privacy" in U.S. law in the form of mere possession of obscene materials.
Michael William McConnell is an American jurist who served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 2002 to 2009. Since 2009,McConnell has been a professor and Director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School. He is also a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution,and Senior Of Counsel to the Litigation Practice Group at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich &Rosati. In May 2020,Facebook appointed him to its content oversight board. In 2020,McConnell published The President Who Would Not Be King:Executive Power under the Constitution under Princeton University Press.
In American constitutional law,a statute is void for vagueness and unenforceable if it is too vague for the average citizen to understand. This is because constitutionally permissible activity may not be chilled because of a statute's vagueness. There are several reasons a statute may be considered vague;in general,a statute might be void for vagueness when an average citizen cannot generally determine what persons are regulated,what conduct is prohibited,or what punishment may be imposed. For example,criminal laws which do not state explicitly and definitely what conduct is punishable are void for vagueness. A statute is also void for vagueness if a legislature's delegation of authority to judges or administrators is so extensive that it could lead to arbitrary prosecutions. A law can also be "void for vagueness" if it imposes on First Amendment freedom of speech,assembly,or religion.
Timothy Michael Tymkovich is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Kansas v. Marsh,548 U.S. 163 (2006),is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a Kansas death penalty statute was consistent with the United States Constitution. The statute in question provided for a death sentence when the aggravating factors and mitigating factors were of equal weight.
Charles W. Johnson is an American jurist and current Associate Chief Justice of the Washington State Supreme Court of the State of Washington,United States. He was born in Tacoma,Washington,and resides in Gig Harbor,Washington.
Barbara Madsen is an American jurist and a current Associate Justice of the Washington Supreme Court. She joined the court in 1993 as the first woman to be popularly elected to the Court in Washington state history. She was re-elected in 1998,2004,and 2010,and 2016. In her years on the Washington Supreme Court,Madsen has sat in judgement on thousands of cases.
Debra Leigh Stephens is an American jurist and an Associate Justice of the Washington Supreme Court. She was appointed to the court in December 2007 by Governor Christine Gregoire and took office on January 1,2008. She was elected by voters in 2008 and re-elected in 2014 and 2020. Prior to her appointment,Justice Stephens served as a judge for Division Three of the Washington Court of Appeals and as an adjunct professor at Gonzaga University School of Law. She is the first judge from Division Three of the Court of Appeals to serve on the Washington State Supreme Court,and the first woman from Eastern Washington to do so.
In the United States,child pornography is illegal under federal law and in all states and is punishable by up to life imprisonment and fines of up to $250,000. U.S. laws regarding child pornography are virtually always enforced and amongst the harshest in the world. The Supreme Court of the United States has found child pornography to be outside the protections of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Federal sentencing guidelines on child pornography differentiate between production,distribution,and purchasing/receiving,and also include variations in severity based on the age of the child involved in the materials,with significant increases in penalties when the offense involves a prepubescent child or a child under the age of 18. U.S. law distinguishes between pornographic images of an actual minor,realistic images that are not of an actual minor,and non-realistic images such as drawings. The latter two categories are legally protected unless found to be obscene,whereas the first does not require a finding of obscenity.
Susan Owens is an American lawyer,jurist,and a current Associate Justice of the Washington Supreme Court. On November 7,2000,she was elected the seventh woman to serve on the court. She joined the court after serving nineteen years as District Court Judge in Western Clallam County,where she was the county's senior elected official with five terms. She also served as the Quileute Tribe's Chief Judge for five years and Chief Judge of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe for more than six years.
Mary Isabel Yu is an American jurist and Associate Justice of the Washington Supreme Court and former judge of the King County Superior Court. She is the state's first openly gay,Asian American,and Latina Justice. She is also the 6th woman currently serving and the 11th woman ever to serve on Washington state's Supreme Court.
Charles K. Wiggins is a former member of the Washington Supreme Court. He was elected to the court in 2010,defeating incumbent Richard B. Sanders.
People v. Aguilar,2 N.E.3d 321,was an Illinois Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the Aggravated Unlawful Use of a Weapon (AUUF) statute violated the right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment. The Court stated that this was because the statute amounted to a wholesale statutory ban on the exercise of a personal right that was specifically named in and guaranteed by the United States Constitution,as construed by the United States Supreme Court. A conviction for Unlawful Possession of a Firearm (UPF) was proper because the possession of handguns by minors was conduct that fell outside the scope of the Second Amendment's protection.
Bond v. United States,572 U.S. 844 (2014),follows up on the Supreme Court's 2011 case of the same name in which it had reversed the Third Circuit and concluded that both individuals and states can bring a Tenth Amendment challenge to federal law. The case was remanded to the Third Circuit,for a decision on the merits,which again ruled against Bond. On appeal,the Supreme Court reversed and remanded again,ruling that the Chemical Weapons Convention Implementation Act of 1998 did not reach Bond's actions and she could not be charged under that federal law.
The Arlene's Flowers lawsuit is a group of merged civil suits brought against Arlene's Flowers of Richland,Washington,US,by a couple whose longtime florist declined service of their same-sex wedding,represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),and by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson. The lawsuits gained national attention due to their religious and civil rights implications. The Supreme Court of the United States let stand two unanimous verdicts by the Washington state Supreme Court that same-sex couples cannot be discriminated against on the basis of religious freedom.
Hurst v. Florida,577 U.S. 92 (2016),was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court,in an 8–1 ruling,applied the rule of Ring v. Arizona to the Florida capital sentencing scheme,holding that the Sixth Amendment requires a jury to find the aggravating factors necessary for imposing the death penalty. In Florida,under a 2013 statute,the jury made recommendations but the judge decided the facts.
Packingham v. North Carolina,582 U.S. ___ (2017),is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that a North Carolina statute that prohibited registered sex offenders from using social media websites is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,which protects the freedom of speech.
Sessions v. Dimaya,584 U.S. ___ (2018),was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that 18 U.S.C. §16(b),a statute defining certain "aggravated felonies" for immigration purposes,is unconstitutionally vague. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) classifies some categories of crimes as "aggravated felonies",and immigrants convicted of those crimes,including those legally present in the United States,are almost certain to be deported. Those categories include "crimes of violence",which are defined by the "elements clause" and the "residual clause". The Court struck down the "residual clause",which classified every felony that,"by its nature,involves a substantial risk" of "physical force against the person or property" as an aggravated felony.
