Neil Gorsuch Questions State Law Scrutiny vs. Constitutional Standards in Hamm v. Smith

Understanding Legal Errors in Hamm v. Smith

• 🔍 The court is examining two related errors made by the district court and the 11th circuit in the Hamm v. Smith case.
• 🎯 The first error involved a misunderstanding of the substantive standard, with Alabama law looking for a likelihood of low IQ rather than just a possibility.
• 🧩 The second error was an analytical one: once courts considered multiple IQ scores and found a theoretical possibility of a score below 70, the IQ score itself was dismissed from further analysis.

The Role of State Law and Federal Standards

• ⚖️ Justice Gorsuch questioned the Assistant to the Solicitor General, Harry Graver, about the relationship between state law definitions and the Eighth Amendment.
• 💡 While the Atkins innovation allows states discretion in defining intellectual disability, Gorsuch emphasized the necessity of an Eighth Amendment floor beneath state law.
• 🏛️ Graver agreed that a federal habeas court must find a violation of federal law, even if state law is more protective than the Eighth Amendment.

Defining the Legal Standard for Intellectual Disability

• ❓ Gorsuch posed a hypothetical: If a state adopted a