Welcome to the BETA release of the new Temple of Justice Project, a joint effort of The Oyez Project and the Thomas S. Foley Institute at Washington State University to provide highlights of the history and work of the Washington State Supreme Court.
This website is still under major construction, with an estimated completion date in the first half of 2010. In the meantime, feel free to explore, send us feedback, and learn more About the Project.
Temple of Justice, 1910-1920
Synopsis: Whether a defendant convicted of first degree assault based on the infliction of “great bodily harm” was properly given an exceptional sentence based on the infliction of injuries that “substantially exceed the level of bodily harm necessary to satisfy the elements of the offense.” See RCW 9.94A.535(3)(y).
Synopsis: Whether the trial court violated an offender’s due process rights when it ordered him to report to jail and serve a period of incarceration if he failed to pay his legal financial obligations by a certain future date.
Synopsis: Whether a superior court is an “agency” subject to the disclosure requirements of the Public Records Act, chapter 42.56 RCW.
Synopsis: Whether, in a prosecution for possession of cocaine, drugs found near the defendant during an encounter with police should have been suppressed because the police arranged the meeting using an illegally seized cell phone.
Synopsis: Whether Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. Read more…
Synopsis: Whether a finding in a prior criminal conviction that the defendant was armed with a “firearm” rendered the conviction a “most serious offense” under the Persistent Offender Accountability Act, which makes any felony a “most serious offense” if it was accompanied by a “deadly weapon” verdict. See former RCW 9.94A.030(23) (1996).
Synopsis: Whether RCW 7.70.100(1), which requires medical malpractice plaintiffs to notify the defendant of the claim 90 days before filing suit, violates equal protection principles.
Synopsis: Whether an information that charged the offense of interfering with the reporting of domestic violence without specifying the predicate domestic violence crime was constitutionally sufficient if the predicate crime could be derived from other counts charged in the information.
Synopsis: Whether under former RCW 26.50.110 (2006), violation of a domestic violence no-contact order constituted a criminal offense only if the violation was one for which arrest was required under RCW 10.31.100(a) or (b).
Synopsis: Whether proposed local initiatives seeking to prohibit the city of Port Angeles from adding fluoride to its public water system are within the local initiative power.
