This death penalty case exemplifies the huge philosophical divide on the Supreme Court over capital punishment. Here, a 5-to-4 majority (consisting of Justices Thomas, Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy and Alito) held that Kansas' capital sentencing statute, which requires the imposition of the death penalty when the sentencing jury determines that …

Without deciding whether the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations grants individuals any enforceable rights, the Court held that a violation of that treaty does not require the states to suppress evidence or forego their procedural default rules.

In this case, the Supreme Court addressed the derivative rights of …

Ronald Banks, a prisoner confined in a Long Term Segregation Unit (LTSU) within the Pennsylvania prison system, sued the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to challenge the constitutionality of a prison rule that bans access to newspapers, magazines and photographs for all inmates housed in the LTSU. The LTSU is …

In this case the Supreme Court upheld Arizona’s limited approach to the insanity defense, holding that due process does not require a state to use both prongs of the M’Naughten insanity test; and that the states are not obligated to permit a defendant to argue that mental illness prevented …