Court Review: Volume 24, Issue 1 - Recent Criminal Decisions of the United States Supreme Court: The 2004-2005 Term

The 2004-2005 Term of the Supreme Court off e red no blockbuster rulings. Nonetheless, in what turned out to be the final year for the Rehnquist Court, there were ru lings of note on topics ranging from securities fraud to sentencing guidelines. In one case, the Court looked to foreign law as a model for determining whether to prohibit the death penalty as a sentence for juvenile criminal offenders. It will be interesting to see, with changes in the Court’s membership, whether this trend to look toward foreign law in constitutional or other criminal cases continues.

In this article, I will review the Court’s criminal-law decisions from the past term. In the next issue of Court Review, I will review the Court ’s civil decisions.