Brief filed: 01/15/2025
Documents
Lesh v. United States
United States Supreme Court; Case No. 24-654
Argument(s)
As a result of the petty-offense exception, defendants are being deprived of their jury-trial right and the benefits and safeguards that come with it. Jury trials hold prosecutors accountable and ensure that one judge’s view doesn’t substitute for the voice of the broader community. But defendants prosecuted for petty offenses are left without that shield, and as a result, petty-crime convictions don’t reflect the sort of reasoned, collaborative deliberation the Framers prized. Worse, shunting petty-crime prosecutions into judge-only proceedings papers over an invaluable win-dow into government power, depriving the people of a tool they need “to rule well.” This Court should overrule the aberrant petty-offense exception.
Author(s)
Jeffrey T. Green, NACDL Amicus Committee Co-Chair, Washington, DC; Matt Aidan Getz, Kahn a. Scolnick, and Patrick J. Fuster, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Los Angeles, CA; Olivia Goldberg and John Seidman, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Washington, DC
