Youth Justice in America

Maryam Ahranjani (LLM, University of Pennsylvania Law School, JD, American University Washington College of Law) taught for ten years at the Washington College of Law and is a visiting professor of law at the University of New Mexico School of Law.  For five years, she served as associate director of the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, which places law students across America in public high schools to teach constitutional literacy courses. Ahranjani is also the co-founder (with Andrew Ferguson) of the National Youth Justice Alliance, a non-profit organization that sends lawyers and law students to juvenile detention facilities to teach young people about Constitutional rights and responsibilities.Andrew Ferguson (L.L.M., Georgetown Law Center, JD Univ. Pennsylvania Law School), Associate Professor of Law at the David A. Clarke School of Law, University of the District of Columbia, teaches courses on criminal law, procedure, and evidence. He is author of Why Jury Duty Matters: A Citizen’s Guide to Constitutional Action (NYU Press).  He is co-chair of the ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Student Activities Committee, which runs the “Citizen Amicus Project,” a national project to involve law students in current Supreme Court cases. Previously, Professor Ferguson worked as a supervising attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where he represented adults and juveniles in cases ranging from homicide to misdemeanor offenses.Jamin B. Raskin is professor of constitutional law and the First Amendment at American University Washington College of Law and founder of its Marshall-Brennan Fellows Program, which places law students in public high schools to teach the We the Students constitutional literacy course. A former assistant attorney general for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Raskin is an active public interest lawyer, defending the rights of political expression and participation for both adults and young people. He is also the author of Overruling Democracy (2003) and dozens of law review articles, op-eds, and essays on constitutional law.

• Chapter 1: American Society, Crime, and the ConstitutionThe Constitution and Crime“We the People” and the War on Drugs: Politicians and Their Families, Athletes, EntertainersCriminal Justice: Not the End of the StoryThe American System of Juvenile JusticeChapter 2: What Is Crime?Constitutional Limits on Government’s Power to Make CrimesThe Structure of Criminal LawsChapter 3: The Second Amendment, Youth, and SchoolsThe Second Amendment and Young PeopleThe Second Amendment and SchoolsChapter 4: Fourth Amendment: Protection from Unreasonable Searches and SeizuresThe Right to Be Left AloneThe Exclusionary RuleReasonable Expectation of PrivacyFourth Amendment SearchOther Expectations of PrivacyWhat Is a Seizure?Probable Cause and the Warrant RequirementChapter 5: Exceptions Swallow the Rule: Warrantless SearchesException 1: Emergency CircumstancesException 2: Plain ViewException 3: Search Incident to an ArrestException 4: Automobile ExceptionException 5: Consensual SearchesException 6: Stop and FriskExclusionary Rule ReviewChapter 6: School SearchesSearch of BelongingsDrug Testing and After-School ActivitiesDrug Testing for All Students?Strip SearchesMetal Detectors and the ConstitutionChapter 7: Fifth Amendment: Privilege against Self-IncriminationThe Screaming EagleProtections against Self-IncriminationJuveniles and the Miranda WarningsWhat Is Custody?Pull Over, JackWhat Is Interrogation?The Dangers of False ConfessionChapter 8: Sixth Amendment: Right to CounselThe Right to Legal CounselRole of Legal CounselRole of the DefenseRight to Counsel for JuvenilesRight to Effective CounselReality of Ineffective CounselA Quick Career QuizChapter 9: Cruel and Unusual PunishmentThe Death Penalty TodayThe Death Penalty and JuvenilesTurning Over a New Leaf?Juveniles and Life Imprisonment Without ParoleChapter 10: The Future of Youth JusticeThe Goals of Criminal PunishmentRecord Prison PopulationsThe Racial Dynamics of the Criminal Justice SystemFelon and Ex-Felon DisenfranchisementGendered OffendersLife in Prison without Parole