Recap of OT2006 Criminal Cases
on Aug 28, 2007 at 2:45 pm
From Professor Rory Little at UC Hastings College of the Law:
I recently produced these Summaries of the Supreme Court’s Term, Criminal Cases, for the ABA’s Annual Meeting panel of the same name. (Note: Readers should feel free to reproduce the summaries, with attribution.) I do this panel every year for the Criminal Justice Section. We had some great panelists: U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White (who is handling the BALCO steroids contempt case); white-collar defense attorney Cristina Arguedas; well-known habeas and appellate litigator Dennis Riordan, and former federal prosecutor Haywood Gilliam of Bingham McCutcheon. The detailed “Summaries†of the 32 decisions I counted as “criminal law or related†present the facts and legal background of each case, as well as an account of every separate opinion issued by the Justices in each case. A list of cases in which cert. has been granted for the coming Term, and a chart of “Who Wrote What†showing the authors of all the various separate opinions, appear at the end of the Summaries.
A very brief overview: In sheer number, the habeas/capital cases dominated the Court’s criminal docket this past Term. In addition, Apprendi fallout continues (see Cunningham and Rita); and the Fourth Amendment provided, as always, entertaining (see Rettele and Scott v. Harris with the first-ever decision with a video weblink appendix) and nuanced (see Brendlin) facts. And a little-noticed decision in a Bivens/extortion lawsuit (Wilkie v. Robbins) might be said to provide the most interesting theoretical issues to chew on: why CAN the federal government engage in a lengthy campaign of harrassment, using some unlawful as well as lawful tactics, to pressure a land-owner to grant an easement, and not run afoul of federal constitutional or statutory provisions? Justice Souter explains his answer; Justice Ginsburg was unconvinced and cites Marbury v. Madison in support.
