%0 Journal Article %A Alan R. Felthous %T Rationality Was Lost on the United States Supreme Court in Its Kahler Decision %D 2021 %R 10.29158/JAAPL.210054-21 %J Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online %P JAAPL.210054-21 %X In its recent Kahler decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Kansas’ abolition of the state’s insanity defense was constitutional. It did so by framing the matter as a choice between the state’s mens rea defense and a moral capacity defense, then mischaracterizing the mens rea defense as a type of insanity defense. In analyzing the two approaches, the Court missed the fundamental importance of rationality in criminal mental responsibility, a constitutional requirement for other criminal competencies, and a condition well described in the Court’s Panetti ruling. The Court’s acceptance of the abolition of a special insanity defense is a public policy in the direction of further criminalizing and punishing rather than providing prompt and proper treatment to those with serious mental illness, at a time when increasing modern research demonstrates the success of insanity acquittee dispositions with improved treatment and management resulting in lower rates of relapse and criminal recidivism. %U https://jaapl.org/content/jaapl/early/2021/12/21/JAAPL.210054-21.full.pdf