The U.S. Supreme Court case Hall v. Florida (2013) revolved around the issue of how states determine intellectual disability in capital punishment cases. Freddie Lee Hall, a man convicted for murder and sentenced to death in Florida, challenged his sentence on the grounds that he was intellectually disabled - a condition which would exempt him from execution under the 2002 Atkins v. Virginia ruling by the Supreme Court prohibiting execution of intellectually disabled individuals as cruel and unusual punishment. However, Florida law required an IQ score of 70 or below for someone to be considered intellectually disabled; Hall's scores ranged from 71 to 80. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hall with a vote count of five-to-four stating that this rigid threshold set by Florida did not adequately consider standard errors measurement inherent in such tests. The court held that states must look beyond mere IQ scores and take into account broader aspects like adaptive functioning when determining intellectual disability for purposes related to capital punishment sentences.

In the dissenting opinion for Hall v. Florida, Justice Alito, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia and Thomas, argued that the majority's decision was not based on an established national consensus against executing intellectually disabled individuals but rather on their own views about the issue. They contended that there is no clear professional consensus among mental health professionals regarding a strict IQ cutoff point to determine intellectual disability. The dissent also criticized the majority for overstepping its authority by effectively deciding a technical question best left to clinicians and states' discretion: what constitutes sufficient evidence of intellectual disability in capital cases? Furthermore, they asserted that Florida’s approach – using an IQ score of 70 as a threshold followed by further inquiry into adaptive functioning if this threshold is met – did not violate Eighth Amendment prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.