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environment, including medical histories, behavioral records, school tests and
reports, and testimony regarding past behavior and family circumstances.” Id. at
712. According to the Supreme Court’s review of medical literature, “the medical
community accepts that all of this evidence can be probative of intellectual disability,
including for individuals who have an IQ test score above 70.” Id. at 711-12.
Moreover, Florida’s scheme did not take into account that “[t]he professionals
who design, administer, and interpret IQ tests have agreed, for years now, that IQ test
scores should be read not as a single fixed number but as a range.” Id.
• Moore v. Texas, 581 U.S. 1 (2017) (Ginsburg, J.)
In Moore, the Supreme Court reversed a Texas appellate court decision that
cabined its review to two IQ scores (78 and 74) and concluded that Moore was not
intellectually disabled. The Court made clear: the Texas court’s “conclusion that
Moore’s IQ scores established that he is not intellectually disabled is irreconcilable
with Hall. Hall instructs that, where an IQ score is close to, but above, 70, courts must
account for the test’s ‘standard error of measurement.’” Id. at 13. “Moore’s score
of 74, adjusted for the standard error of measurement, yields a range of 69 to 79.…
Because the lower end of Moore’s score range falls at or below 70, the [state court]
had to move on to consider Moore’s adaptive functioning.” Id. at 14.
“[W]e do not end the intellectual-disability inquiry, one way or the other,
based on Moore’s IQ score. Rather, in line with Hall, we require that courts continue
the inquiry and consider other evidence of intellectual disability where an individual’s
IQ score, adjusted for the test’s standard error, falls within the clinically established
range for intellectual-functioning deficits.” Id. at 15.
The Supreme Court also disagreed with the Texas court’s analysis regarding
Moore’s adaptive deficits. Id. at 15–20. The Court reiterated that “[t]he medical
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