“Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Elena Kagan dissented from the decision.”
Interesting split, conservatives and liberals on both sides of the decision.
IN my opinion, these are the most interesting cases. There must be some really interesting arguments made (and believed) on both sides to have such a split.
Contrast that with all the famous cases, where on the one side you have the plain meaning of the Constitution and on the other you have "but it's not fair" (stomps foot)
I’m surprised that Thomas agree with this. Unanimous juries is not in the constitution.
Very interesting, especially Kagan.
"The doctrine of stare decisis gets rough treatment in today’s decision. Lowering the bar for overruling our precedents, a badly fractured majority casts aside an important and long-established decision with little regard for the enormous reliance the decision has engendered. If the majority’s approach is not just a way to dispose of this one case, the decision marks an important turn.
"Nearly a half century ago in Apodaca v. Oregon, 406 U. S. 404 (1972), the Court held that the Sixth Amendment permits non-unanimous verdicts in state criminal trials, and in all the years since then, no Justice has even hinted that Apodaca should be reconsidered. [...]
"I would not overrule Apodaca. Whatever one may think about the correctness of the decision, it has elicited enormous and entirely reasonable reliance. And before this Court decided to intervene, the decision appeared to have little practical importance going forward. Louisiana has now abolished non-unanimous verdicts, and Oregon seemed on the verge of doing the same until the Court intervened."
FewsOrange wrote:
“Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Elena Kagan dissented from the decision.”
Interesting split, conservatives and liberals on both sides of the decision.
I was thinking that as well.
So - FOR split decision criminal trials ending in a guilty verdict - Roberts, Alitio, and Kagan.
So - AGAINST split decision criminal trails ending in a guilty verdict - Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayer, Gorsuch & Kavanaugh.
Wow - that’s some pretty wide ideological divide.