By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court rules that its recent decision requiring unanimity in jury verdicts does NOT apply retroactively, dashing the hopes of thousands of people convicted by split verdicts. Opinion by Kavanaugh; all three liberals dissent. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Big news here: The Supreme Court OVERTURNS the precedent that a "watershed" rule of criminal procedure may apply retroactively. That's a major change to retroactivity precedent. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
This is a very aggressive decision by the Supreme Court's conservatives—not only allowing earlier non-unanimous convictions to stand, but also abruptly overturning a major precedent that applied "watershed" rules of criminal procedure retroactively. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Kavanaugh (left) faults Kagan for dissenting in Ramos, which required unanimous convictions, then supporting its retroactive application today. Kagan (right) is not pleased with this accusation of inconsistency. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf… 
In the second decision of the day (there will be more), the Supreme Court reverses the 4th Circuit's ruling refusing to remove Baltimore's lawsuit against fossil fuel companies to federal court. Majority opinion by Gorsuch, only Sotomayor dissents. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
While the lawsuit here is important, the decision resolves a technical dispute over civil procedure: whether federal appeals courts can review all of a district court's decision to remand a case back to state court. By a 7–1 vote, SCOTUS says yes.
https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1394295488141213700
The Supreme Court's third decision of the day (there will be more) is one I did not follow, CIC Services v. IRS, but here's the holding. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Fourth and final decision of the day: An unexpected victory for the 4th Amendment in which the Supreme Court strictly limits the "community caretaking" exception to the warrant requirement. Unanimous decision by Thomas, with concurrences. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Thomas' majority opinion is just four pages long, and fairly narrow: He writes that the "community caretaking" exception to the warrant requirement—created in the context of car searches—generally does not justify warrantless searches of the home.
supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
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