CLR Diversity Editor Sean Darling-Hammond analyzes the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Renee v. Duncan—the latest in a series of cases challenging Department of Education regulations that disproportionately affect low-income students by allowing teachers enrolled in alternative certification programs to engage in instruction. Darling-Hammond ultimately advocates a novel solution to allow states…

CLR member Anna K. Christensen argues that the Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. Alabama stopped short of providing juvenile offenders with complete justice. By failing to categorically ban life sentences without the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders, Christensen asserts that the Court neglected an opportunity to fashion a sentencing system that acknowledges…

Robin Kuntz, a CLR member, analyzes the implications of the Ninth Circuit’s decision in United States v. Ressam, the first case in the jurisdiction involving the criminal sentencing of a terrorist under the advisory sentencing guidelines. Kuntz concludes that although the guidelines do not offer a clear standard by which a…

Third-year law student Jalem Peguero argues that the Supreme Court’s decision in Blueford v. Arkansas trades constitutional protection for rigid formalism. The Blueford Court sanctioned the retrial of criminal defendants for offenses where a jury did not formally acquit the defendant; accordingly, Peguero claims, the Court prevented even clear statements by jury…