Share this page!

Mark Joseph Stern Profile picture
Twitter logo
17 May, 9 tweets, 4 min read
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.
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…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Mark Joseph Stern

Mark Joseph Stern Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @mjs_DC

Mark Joseph Stern Profile picture
17 May
BREAKING: The Supreme Court agrees to hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, a challenge to Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban. This may well mark the beginning of the end of Roe v. Wade.
supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…
There is no split in the lower courts over a state's ability to ban abortion at 15 weeks (or earlier). Even conservative judges recognize that Roe and Casey prohibit total bans on abortion before viability. It seems likely that the Supreme Court took this case to change the rule.
The Supreme Court has sat on Dobbs since September 2020. There was clearly a battle behind the scenes between the justices over the decision to take this case. It is an extraordinarily ominous sign for reproductive rights that the anti-abortion faction apparently won out.
Read 8 tweets
Mark Joseph Stern Profile picture
14 May
Judge Tyson angrily dissented from a decision allowing the removal of a Confederate memorial, citing, among other things, the Bible. appellate.nccourts.org/opinions/?c=2&…
Who could’ve guessed that a judge who cited the Bible to defend Confederate monuments would allegedly try to run over Black Lives Matter protesters? appellate.nccourts.org/opinions/?c=2&…
Judge Tyson, who is accused of trying to run over Black Lives Matter protesters, also dissented from a landmark decision allowing North Carolina residents to obtain a domestic violence protective order against a same-sex partner. appellate.nccourts.org/opinions/?c=2&…
Read 4 tweets
Mark Joseph Stern Profile picture
4 May
Today's oral arguments at the Supreme Court in Terry v. U.S. involve a complicated (and extremely important) question about the scope of the First Step Act's sentence reductions. I think this amicus brief by @MyConstitution does a great job explaining it: supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/2…
Today's case also illustrates the Trump administration's Janus-faced approach to criminal justice: Trump signed the First Step Act, but his Department of Justice relentlessly sought to sabotage it. In this case, Trump's DOJ fought tooth and nail against a sentence reduction ...
But thankfully, Joe Biden's Department of Justice switched positions, favoring a sentence reduction in this case (and a more generous interpretation of the First Step Act). Acting SG Elizabeth Prelogar's brief is characteristically excellent: supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/2…
Read 5 tweets
Mark Joseph Stern Profile picture
3 May
I want to be clear that meat has been a “culture war” issue for a while. The meat industry relentlessly associates the consumption of animal flesh with masculinity and patriotism. But today more people are recognizing the catastrophic environmental consequences of meat ...
... and these folks tend to care about the climate crisis, which means they’re disproportionately progressive, which means people like Hotline Josh pick up on meat’s culture war valence because it falls along traditional partisan lines and becomes woke-adjacent Fox News fodder.
I have been a vegetarian for 18 years. I do not ever preach the virtues of vegetarianism and don’t even like talking about it. Yet people consistently take my refusal to eat meat as a personal and political affront, and often code it in terms of gender and sexuality.
Read 8 tweets
Mark Joseph Stern Profile picture
3 May
The Supreme Court once again takes no action on Dobbs, the challenge to Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban. Orders here: supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…
Fallout from the Supreme Court's recent decision in Jones v. Mississippi restoring juvenile life without parole: SCOTUS reverses a 9th Circuit decision that had ordered resentencing for Riley Briones, who was condemned to life without parole as a child. supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…
Clarence Thomas urges the Supreme Court to overturn the Feres doctrine, which bars members of the military from suing for injuries incident to military service. RBG signaled that she might agree with his position in 2019 (and I think he's right). supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…
Read 7 tweets
Mark Joseph Stern Profile picture
29 Apr
The Supreme Court has issued its first and only opinion of the day in Niz-Chavez v. Garland, ruling against the government, with this literally unprecedented lineup. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Here is Gorsuch's opinion paragraph, which is truly classic Gorsuch. (The answer to the question at the end is no.) supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
The upshot of today's decision is that the government screwed up its notice of removal to Mr. Niz-Chavez, who entered the country without authorization, so he can now seek cancellation of his deportation. Kavanaugh, Roberts, and Alito dissent. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Read 8 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @mjs_DC has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @mjs_DC!

Read all threads by @mjs_DC

:(