Law Student Scholarship Cited in Appeals Court Decision A note by recent Washington and Lee law graduate Scott Koven ‘24L was cited in a March ruling by the Missouri Court of Appeals.

By Law Communications
June 6, 2024

A note by recent Washington and Lee law graduate Scott Koven ‘24L was cited in a March ruling by the Missouri Court of Appeals. In the case, the appellant argued that a trial court erred by not granting a motion to dismiss a felony drug charge due to medical emergency immunity, as well as a motion to suppress drug evidence due to an illegal search.

In the analysis affirming the lower court’s decision, Judge Edward Ardini, writing for a unanimous Court of Appeals panel, examined the recent enactment of state medial amnesty laws designed to protect drug users from criminal punishment if medical assistance is sought at the scene of an overdose. Koven’s note, “Deserving Life: How Judicial Application of Medical Amnesty Laws Perpetuates Substance Use Stigma,” examines how judges have applied these laws and examines how amnesty laws connect to the criminalization of addiction.

“Medical amnesty laws reflect a legislative interest in health over punishment. Today, substance use disorder is recognized as a medical, neurological issue and the overdose crisis is recognized as a public health phenomenon. This Note argues that, both in statutory language and judicial application, gaps in the medical amnesty response stray from this reality and instead reflect the stigmatizing, racist normative view promoted during the War on Drugs—that substance use is a moral failing, symptomatic of a lack of personal responsibility. This Note’s key point is that, as long as legislators and judges fail to acknowledge, interrogate, and learn from the United States’ prior failures in responding to addiction, fatal gaps will continue to exist both in medical amnesty laws and in the broader response to the drug overdose crisis,” writes Koven.

Koven served as Editor in Chief of the W&L Law Review as a 3L. He will spend his first year after graduation as a clerk to Judge Daniel Ortiz of the Virginia Court of Appeals.

Koven’s note is available online at the Washington and Lee Law Review website. A PDF of the appeals court decision is available here.

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