No. 18-6135October Term 2019Decided Mar 23, 2020
Kahler v. Kansas
This case asked whether Kansas could limit the insanity defense so that mental illness could negate criminal intent, but could not excuse a defendant who understood what he was doing yet could not tell right from wrong.
Case status
- Current stage
- Decided
- Latest event
- Decision released Mar 23, 2020
- What it's about
This case asked whether Kansas could limit the insanity defense so that mental illness could negate criminal intent, but could not excuse a defendant who understood what he was doing yet could not tell right from wrong. The Supreme Court upheld Kansas’s law, ruling that the Constitution does not require states to adopt a traditional moral-capacity insanity defense.
Question presented
Do the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments permit a state to abolish the insanity defense?
- Case path
Supreme Court of Kansas / Decision released Mar 23, 2020
- Area
Decided Supreme Court case
Timing
Decided March 23, 2020
The Court released its decision on March 23, 2020 without hearing oral argument.
Related cases
Grounding
- Grounding
- Primary-source trail available.
- Note
- Plain-English explainer. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.
- Checked
- Jun 1, 2026
- Method
- Methodology