NACDL News: NACDL Amicus Brief: Congress Violated the Equal Protection Clause and Exacerbated Racial

In an amicus curiae brief filed on Dec. 18, 2014, in Davis v. United States Sentencing Commission, an appeal of a dismissal of a petition for writ of mandamus now pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, NACDL forcefully and methodically demonstrates that Congress’s 1995 reaffirmation of the 100:1 federal sentencing ratio for powder to crack cocaine violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.