John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections v. Joseph Clifton Smith (24-872)
- Term
- OT 2025
- Argued
- 2025-12-10
- Decided
- 2026-05-21
- Vote
- 5-4 for Smith
- Opinion
- Per curiam
- Majority
- Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Jackson
- Dissent
- Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch
The case in brief
Facts
Joseph Smith was convicted of murder in Alabama in 1998, and a jury recommended a death sentence, which the judge imposed. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that executing a person with intellectual disability violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and Smith then claimed he was intellectually disabled. Alabama courts rejected his claim, but a federal judge held a hearing, considered five IQ scores ranging from 72 to 78 along with expert testimony and other evidence, and found Smith intellectually disabled. The federal appeals court (the Eleventh Circuit) agreed, and when the Supreme Court sent the case back to ask how it had treated the multiple scores, the appeals court said it had looked at all the evidence together and again ruled for Smith. Alabama, represented by prison commissioner John Hamm, asked the Supreme Court to step in, and the Court agreed to decide a question about multiple IQ scores that was suggested by the federal government.
Question
When a person claiming intellectual disability has several IQ scores, may courts consider the combined effect of all of those scores, and if so, how?
Conclusion
Smith won: by a 5-4 vote in a short unsigned order, the Court dismissed the case as "improvidently granted," meaning it decided it should not have taken the case, and it did not answer the question. As a result, the Eleventh Circuit's ruling that Smith is intellectually disabled and cannot be executed stays in place. Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Jackson, agreed and wrote that the issue was not properly raised in the lower courts and that all sides agree there is no single required method for weighing multiple scores. Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissented; Justice Alito wrote the main dissent, and Justice Thomas separately argued that Atkins should be overruled.
Opinion of the Court
Authored by the Court (20,290 words total).
Volume 608 U. S. Part 1 Pages 278–338
THE SUPREME COURT May 21, 2026
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HAMM, COMMISSIONER, ALABAMA DEPARTMENT certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the eleventh circuit No. 24–872. Argued December 10, 2025—Decided May 21, 2026 Certiorari dismissed.
Robert M. Overing, Principal Deputy Solicitor General of Alabama, argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Steve Marshall, Attorney General of Alabama, Edmund G. LaCour, Jr., Solicitor General, Dylan Mauldin, Assistant Solicitor General, and Benjamin M. Seiss, Assistant Attorney General. Harry S. Graver argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae urging reversal. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Sauer, Acting Assistant Attorney General Galeotti, Deputy Solicitor General Mooppan, and Ann O'Connell Adams. Seth P. Waxman argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Allison M. Schultz, Anneke F. Dunbar-Gronke, Zaki Anwar, Kacey L. Keeton, and Alan E. Schoenfeld.*
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*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were fled for the State of Idaho et al. by Raúl R. Labrador, Attorney General of Idaho, Alan M. Hurst, Solicitor General, Michael A. Zarian, Deputy Solicitor General, and Gader Wren, Assistant Solicitor General, and by the Attorneys General for their respective States as follows: Tim Griffn of Arkansas, James Uthmeier of Florida, Theodore E. Rokita of Indiana, Kris Kobach of Kansas, Liz Murrill of Louisiana, Lynn Fitch of Mississippi, Andrew Bailey of Missouri, Austin Knudsen of Montana, Michael T. Hilgers of Nebraska, Drew H. Wrigley of North Dakota, Dave Yost of Ohio, Gentner Drummond of Oklahoma, Alan Wilson of South Carolina, Marty Jackley of South Dakota, Jonathan Skrmetti of Tennessee, Ken Paxton of Texas, and Derek Brown of Utah, and by Rusty D. Crandell and Linley Wilson; for the Commonwealth of Kentucky by Russell Coleman, Attorney General of Kentucky, Matthew F. Kuhn, Solicitor General, John H. Heyburn, Principal Deputy
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