Government Topic Paper – “Is it wrong to lock up young killers… FOREVER??” Civil Liberties are laws that restrain the powers of our government to prevent abuse and oppression of citizens. This Government Topic Paper will deal with Civil Liberties, in particular, juveniles convicted of murder. On January 25, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered a 6-3 ruling on a case that dealt with a previous 2012 Supreme Court ruling regarding mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juvenile killers. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court banned mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juvenile killers. In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that their 2012 decision must be applied retroactively – meaning all such mandatory life-without-parole sentences given to juveniles before 2012 must be reconsidered. The case is Montgomery v. Louisiana. In TWO pages maximum, please discuss (1) what this case (Montgomery v. Lousiana) was about (the issues the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to consider), (2) who supports the ban on mandatory life-without-parole sentences on juveniles and why, (3) who opposes the ban on mandatory life-without-parole sentences (in other words, wants to be able to sentence juveniles to mandatory life-without-parole) and why, (4) where do you stand regarding this issue/Court case and why? NOTE: For supporters and critics, DO NOT consider the Supreme Court Justices. Find supporters and critics who are NOT Supreme Court Justices – e.g. state officials, civil libertarians, senators, congressmen/women, attorneys general, law enforcement leaders, etc. TWO pages maximum, which means each section should only be about ½-page. There are no right or wrong positions, only well defended or poorly defended positions. You may agree with the 6-majority, or agree with the 3-minority, it doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is a well researched and argued paper from you. ONLY YOUR NAME AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE. Anything other than your name will consume precious space that you will need to adequately address each section, and if you include anything beyond your name at the top, your assignment will be assessed a -5 point penalty. CITATIONS ARE REQUIRED. Citations must be proper and complete. If you do not know how to properly cite sources, please review your English 1A notes, or seek help at the Language Success Center (BEB-101). NO CITATIONS = 0-points for the assignment, JUST A LIST OF SOURCES AT THE END WITH NO CITATIONS IN ANY OF THE FIRST THREE SECTIONS = 0-points for the assignment. I apologize for the ALL CAPS, but I can’t emphasize enough that proper citations are absolutely required for any research work, even if it’s only two pages long. Your work must be word processed in a format that my Chaffey equipment can open, such as MS Word (.doc/.docx), rtf (Rich Text Format), odt (Open Document Text), etc. My Chaffey equipment cannot open certain formats, such as MS Works (.wps) files. If I cannot open your file, then I can’t read it, and thus I won’t be able to give you any points for it. So, please submit it in MS Word, rtf, or odt.
