LIBERTY'S ENEMY:
CHIEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST'S CRIMINAL PROCEDURE OPINIONS
Published in The Georgia Defender, p. 1 (April 1990).
Author: Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law.
Since the early 1970's an increasingly conservative Supreme Court of the United States has been leading this country through a criminal procedure counterrevolution (also called the new rehnquisition), during which the federal rights and remedies of criminal defendants have been slowly but inexorably narrowed. Chief Justice Rehnquist, the most articulate and ideological of the Court's conservative justices, may properly be regarded as the founder of this trend in favor of restricting criminal procedure rights. Few persons, however, even criminal defense attorneys, realize just how extremely conservative the Chief Justice really is.
Since he took office as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States on Jan. 7, 1972, William Hubbs Rehnquist (who became Chief Justice on Sept. 26, 1986) has written 99 majority or plurality opinions for the Court in the field of criminal procedure--that is, in cases involving the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, or 14th amendment rights of criminal suspects or defendants. In only 6 of these 99 criminal procedure cases (6.2%), did Rehnquist write an opinion upholding a claim of denial of rights asserted by the accused, and one of these six opinions was overruled by another opinion of Rehnquist's written three years later. Four of the six opinions were authored before 1976, five of them before 1980, and the sixth, handed down in 1987, was the single pro-accused opinion of Rehnquist's during the entire decade of the 1980's.
On the other hand, Rehnquist has written 93 criminal procedure opinions (93.8%) rejecting the claim of the accused that his or her rights were violated. On average, therefore, Rehnquist has authored over 5 anti-accused opinions each year he has served on the Court, while his pro-accused opinions average out to not quite one every 3 years. Furthermore, whereas his pro-accused opinions are getting even less frequent, the pace of Rehnquist's anti-accused opinions is increasing: there were 18 in the period 1972-75, 21 in the period 1976-1980, 26 in the period 1981-1985, and 28 thus far in the period 1986-90. And whereas Rehnquist's miserly 6 pro-accused opinions all involve rather minor or obvious issues of law, a number of his anti-accused opinions involve major issues and make drastic restrictions on basic rights.
Rehnquist's 6 opinions upholding an accused's claim of denial of rights are listed below in chronological order, and then his 93 opinions denying an accused's claims are listed, also in chronological order. Each opinion is accompanied by a parenthetical explaining the opinion.
In preparing this examination of Rehnquist's criminal procedure opinions I have limited myself to his majority or plurality opinions for the Court and have excluded his concurring or dissenting opinions. It should be noted, however, that Rehnquist has often dissented from the increasingly rare decisions of the Court over the past 18 years that have expanded criminal procedure protections. For example, he dissented in the following cases: (1) Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648 (1979), which held that police may not randomly stop moving automobiles, (2) Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 777 (1981), which held that police may not reinterrogate a suspect who has invoked his Miranda right to counsel, (3) Evitts v. Lucey, 469 U.S. 387 (1985), which held that due process guarantees a defendant the right to the effective assistance of counsel on direct appeal, and (4) Arizona v. Roberson, 486 U.S. 675 (1988), which extended the holding in Edwards v. Arizona to include cases where the police wish to interrogate a defendant about a crime unrelated to the crime which was the subject of the initial interrogation.
Doesn't a judge with this record, a judge who since 1981
has written over 50 criminal procedure opinions upholding the government's
position and but one opinion sustaining the contentions of the accused,
deserve the appellation inimicus libertatis--liberty's enemy?
Rehnquist Opinions Upholding a Defendant's Claim of Denial of
Rights
1. Ham v. South Carolina, 409 U.S. 524 (1973) (marijuana
possession conviction of black civil rights worker violated due process
because trial court refused to permit jurors on voir dire to be examined
concerning possible racial prejudice; conviction reversed)
2. Robinson v. Neil, 409 U.S. 505 (1973) (Waller
v. Florida, 397 U.S. 387 (1970), prohibiting on double jeopardy grounds
an individual from being subjected to two prosecutions, state and municipal,
based on same act or offense, is fully retroactive; order granting §2254
habeas corpus relief affirmed)
3. Jenkins v. Georgia, 418 U.S. 153 (1974) (the
motion picture "Carnal Knowledge" is not obscene; conviction of Albany
theater manager for showing the movie is reversed)
4. United States v. Jenkins, 420 U.S. 358 (1975)
(although it is unclear whether the trial court's judgment discharging
the defendant was a resolution of the factual issues against the government,
the double jeopardy clause bars government appeal from the judgment, since
further proceedings of some sort devoted to resolving factual issues going
to the elements of the offense charged would have been required in the
trial court if the judgment was reversed; order dismissing government's
appeal from judgment discharging defendant affirmed), overruled,
United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82 (1978) (Rehnquist, J.)
5. Burch v. Louisiana, 441 U.S. 130 (1979) (a conviction
by a nonunanimous six person jury for a nonpetty offense violates right
to trial by jury guaranteed by 6th and 14th amendments; conviction reversed)
6. Mathews v. United States, 485 U.S. 58 (1987)
(generally, a defendant is entitled to an instruction as to any recognized
defense for which there exists evidence sufficient for a reasonable jury
to find in his favor; federal criminal defendants are not barred from asserting
inconsistent defenses at trial; even if a defendant on trial in federal
court denies one or more elements of the crime, he is entitled to an entrapment
instruction whenever there is sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury
to find entrapment; conviction reversed)
1. Schneble v. Florida, 405 U.S. 427 (1972) (any
violation of defendant's 6th amendment confrontation rights under Bruton
v. United States, 391 U.S. 123 (1968), was harmless error; conviction affirmed)
2. Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143 (1972) (investigatory
stops and frisks incident thereto need not be based on policeman's personal
observations, but may be based on informer's tip; order granting §2254
habeas corpus relief reversed)
3. Mancusi v. Stubbs, 408 U.S. 204 (1972) (defendant's
6th amendment confrontation rights were not violated; order granting §2254
habeas corpus relief reversed)
4. Davis v. United States, 411 U.S. 233 (1973)
(failure to make pretrial motion to dismiss raising grand jury claim requires
denial of application for postconviction relief under 28 U.S.C. §2255
raising the same claim, absent cause for the failure to file motion; order
denying §2255 relief affirmed)
5. Tollett v. Henderson, 411 U.S. 258 (1973) (valid
guilty plea requires denial of application for postconviction habeas corpus
relief filed under 28 U.S.C. §2254 raising claim of systematic exclusion
of black persons from grand jury that indicted defendant; order granting
§2254 habeas corpus relief reversed)
6. United States v. Russell, 411 U.S. 423 (1973)
(adhering to "subjective" test of entrapment, and rejecting the "objective"
test; drug conviction reinstated)
7. Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433 (1973) (warrantless
search of locked trunk of defendant's impounded automobile was not violative
of 4th amendment, where defendant, an off-duty policeman, had been arrested
for drunken driving after being involved in accident, automobile had been
towed to private garage, and police had probable cause to believe the defendant's
service revolver was somewhere in the automobile; here police were "engage[d]
in what, for want of a better term, may be described as community caretaking
functions, totally divorced from the detection, investigation, or acquisition
of evidence relating to the violation of a criminal statute;" order granting
§2254 habeas corpus relief reversed)
8. Cupp v. Naughten, 414 U.S. 141 (1973) (before
a federal court may overturn a conviction resulting from state criminal
trial on grounds involving a jury instruction claimed to violate due process,
it must be established that the challenged instruction is not merely undesirable,
erroneous, or even universally condemned, but also violative of the due
process clause of the 14th amendment; furthermore, the instruction must
be judged not in isolation but in the context of the overall charge; order
granting §2254 habeas corpus relief reversed)
9. United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218 (1973)
(after making a custodial arrest of defendant for operating a motor vehicle
after his driver's license had been revoked, police were permitted by the
4th amendment to conduct a full body search of the defendant; drug conviction
reinstated)
10. Gustafson v. Florida, 414 U.S. 260 (1973) (after
making a custodial arrest of defendant for not having his driver's license
in his possession, police were permitted by 4th amendment to conduct a
full body search of the defendant; drug conviction affirmed)
11. Gooding v. United States, 416 U.S. 430 (1974)
(federal statute relating to search warrants for controlled substances
requires no special showing for a nighttime search other than that the
contraband is likely to be on the property at that time; the standards
for issuance of search warrants for controlled substances in the District
of Columbia are governed by the federal statute relating to search warrants
for controlled substances, rather than by local District of Columbia laws
imposing more stringent requirements on nighttime searches; court of appeals'
judgment reversing pretrial order suppressing the evidence seized under
the search warrant is affirmed)
12. Donnelly v. DeChristoforo, 416 U.S. 637 (1974)
(under the circumstances, the prosecutor's improper remarks--consisting
of expressing a personal belief in defendant's guilt and suggesting defendant,
charged with second degree murder, was guilty of first degree murder--did
not violate the defendant's 14th amendment due process rights, where defense
attorney objected immediately and trial judge instructed jury to disregard
the statement suggesting defendant was guilty of first degree murder; order
granting §2254 habeas corpus relief reversed)
13. Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U.S. 433 (1974) (Miranda
warnings are "not themselves required by the Constitution," but only "prophylactic
standards" designed to safeguard the 5th amendment self-incrimination privilege;
order granting §2254 habeas corpus relief reversed)
14. Ross v. Moffitt, 417 U.S. 600 (1974) (the 14th
amendment does not require states to provide free counsel to convicted
indigent criminal defendants who seek discretionary appeal in state supreme
court, or who seek to file certiorari petition in U.S. Supreme Court; order
granting §2254 habeas corpus relief reversed)
15. Parker v. Levy, 417 U.S. 733 (1974) (articles
of Uniform Code of Military Justice making it criminal for servicemen to
engage in "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman," or to engage
in "disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline"
in the armed forces, are not unconstitutionally vague or overbroad under
the 5th amendment due process clause; order granting §2241 postconviction
habeas corpus relief reversed)
16. Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87 (1974)
(affirming convictions for using the mails to carry obscene books)
17. United States v. Peltier, 422 U.S. 531 (1975)
(Almeida-Sanchez
v. United States, 413 U.S. 266 (1973), restricting warrantless automobile
searches not based on probable cause, is not retroactive to searches conducted
before the date of that decision; drug conviction reinstated)
18. United States v. Powell, 423 U.S. 87 (1975)
(reinstating conviction for mailing concealable firearm; statute criminalizing
such conduct is not unconstitutionally vague)
19. Middendorf v. Henry, 425 U.S. 25 (1976) (neither
the 6th amendment right to counsel clause nor the 5th amendment due process
clause guarantees indigent servicemen defendants the right to appointed
counsel in summary court martial proceedings; order granting §2241
postconviction habeas corpus relief reversed)
20. Hampton v. United States, 425 U.S. 484 (1976)
(a government informer supplied defendant with heroin, which he was then
convicted of selling to undercover police; since defendant admits he was
predisposed to the commit the crime, his claim that he was entrapped fails;
defendant's due process claim also fails because if the police engage in
illegal activity in concert with a predisposed defendant, the remedy lies
not in freeing the equally culpable defendant, but in prosecuting the police
for crime under the applicable federal or state laws; drug conviction affirmed)
(plurality opinion)
21. United States v. MacCollom, 426 U.S. 317 (1976)
(the due process clause of the 5th amendment does not establish any right
to collaterally attack a final judgment of conviction; upholding validity
of 28 U.S.C. §753(f), which limits free transcripts for indigent federal
convicts seeking to collaterally attack their conviction to cases where
the trial court certifies that the collateral attack proceeding is not
frivolous and that the transcript is needed to decide the proceeding; dismissal
of defendant's application for §2255 postconviction relief reinstated)
(plurality opinion)
22. United States v. Santana, 427 U.S. 38 (1976)
(warrantless arrest in public place based on probable cause satisfies the
4th amendment; the defendant here, who was standing in her doorway when
police with probable cause to arrest her saw and approached her, was in
a public place and hence subject to a lawful arrest; defendant's act of
retreating into her home at the approach of the police could not thwart
an otherwise proper arrest, and therefore police did not violate 4th amendment
when they followed her into the vestibule of her home and arrested her
there; evidence seized pursuant to the arrest was therefore admissible;
drug conviction reinstated)
23. Splawn v. California, 431 U.S. 595 (1977) (affirming
misdemeanor conviction for selling two reels of obscene film)
24. United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606 (1977)
(18 U.S.C. §482, authorizing customs officials to open international
mail entering the United States if they have reasonable cause to suspect
that the mail contains illegally imported merchandise, does not violate
the 4th amendment; drug conviction reinstated)
25. Dobbert v. Florida, 432 U.S. 282 (1977) (defendant's
death sentence did not violate ex post facto clause, even though there
was no valid death penalty statute on the books at the time of defendant's
crime, and even though the death penalty statute under which defendant
was sentenced was enacted after defendant's crime) Note: In his
dissenting opinion, Justice Stevens wrote: "I assume that this case
will ultimately be regarded as nothing more than an archaic gargoyle."
25. Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72 (1977) (partially
overruling "deliberate bypass" test of procedural default set forth in
Fay
v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391 (1963); failure of state prisoner to comply with
state contemporaneous objection rule bars §2254 habeas corpus relief,
absent cause and prejudice; order granting §2254 habeas corpus relief
reversed)
26. Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Labor Union,
Inc., 433 U.S. 119 (1977) (upholding validity of prison system regulations
prohibiting prisoners from soliciting other inmates to join prisoners'
labor union and barring union meetings and bulk mailings concerning the
union from outside sources; judgment granting §1983 relief in favor
of the union reversed)
27. United States v. Ceccolini, 435 U.S. 268 (1978)
(4th amendment exclusionary rule should be invoked with much greater reluctance
where the claim is based in a causal relationship between a constitutional
violation and the discovery of a live witness than when a similar claim
is advanced to support suppression of an inanimate object; drug conviction
reinstated)
28. Scott v. United States, 436 U.S. 128 (1978)
(even though federal electronic surveillance statute contains a provision
that the authorization to intercept be conducted so as to minimize the
interception of communications not otherwise subject to interception, and
even though only 40% of the conversations intercepted were drug-related,
failure of police to make good faith efforts to comply with the minimization
requirement while intercepting communications made on defendant's telephone
does not require suppression of the evidence; drug conviction affirmed)
29. United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82 (1978)
(United States v. Jenkins, 420 U.S. 358 (1975), overruled; where
the defendant seeks to have the trial terminated without any submission
to either judge or jury as to his guilt or innocence, the 5th amendment
double jeopardy clause does not bar a government appeal from the termination;
dismissal of government's appeal from the termination reversed)
30. Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128 (1978) (partially
overruling Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257 (1960), whereunder
anyone legitimately on the premises had standing to object to an illegal
search of the premises; passengers in automobile have no standing to object
to an illegal search of the automobile, since they asserted neither a property
nor a possessory interest in the automobile, nor in the property (rifles
and ammunition) seized; robbery conviction affirmed)
31. Scott v. Illinois, 440 U.S. 367 (1978) (defendant,
an indigent, was charged with a shoplifting offense punishable by 1 year
in jail, $500.00 fine, or both; he was not provided counsel and after a
bench trial was convicted and fined $50.00; held, the 6th amendment right
to counsel does not extend to a case where one is charged with an offense
for which imprisonment upon conviction is authorized but not actually imposed;
conviction affirmed)
32. Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (1979) (court
declines to acknowledge propriety of using writ of habeas corpus to attack
conditions of pretrial confinement; neither strip searches nor body cavity
inspections of pretrial detainees after contact visits with outsiders were
unconstitutional under due process clause; nor were "publisher-only" rule,
the prohibition on receipt of packages, or the room-search rule; "[a]dmittedly,
this practice [body cavity inspections] gives up the most pause (!);" in
evaluating the constitutionality of conditions or restrictions of pretrial
confinement, the proper inquiry is not whether the conditions are justified
by compelling necessities of jail administration, but whether those conditions
amount to punishment; an example of such unconstitutional pretrial punishment
would be "loading a detainee with chains and shackles and throwing him
in a dungeon;" "[t]he presumption of innocence ... has no application to
a determination of the rights of a pretrial detainee during confinement
before his trial has even begun (!);" order granting §2241 habeas
corpus relief to federal pretrial detainees housed in Metropolitan Correctional
Center reversed)
33. Parker v. Randolph, 442 U.S. 62 (1979) (Bruton
v. United States, 391 U.S. 123 (1968), which interpreted 6th amendment
confrontation clause to prohibit admission at joint trial of the confession
of a codefendant who does not take the stand, does not apply where the
defendant himself has confessed and the confessions "interlock;" order
granting §2254 habeas corpus relief reversed) (plurality opinion)
34. United States v. Bailey, 444 U.S. 394 (1979)
(construing 18 U.S.C. §751(a), which punishes escape from federal
custody; conviction reinstated)
35. United States v. Apfelbaum, 445 U.S. 115 (1979)
(when a witness has been granted immunity and testifies falsely, the 5th
amendment self-incrimination privilege does not prevent the use of his
immunized testimony in a subsequent prosecution for false swearing; conviction
reinstated)
36. Rummel v. Estelle, 445 U.S. 263 (1980) (defendant,
who previously on two separate occasions had been convicted and sentenced
to prison for felonies (fraudulent use of a credit card to obtain $80.00
worth of goods or services, and passing a forged check in the amount of
$28.36), was convicted of a third felony (obtaining $120.75 by false pretenses),
and sentenced under the recidivist statute to a mandatory term of life
imprisonment; held, the life sentence did not violate the cruel and unusual
punishments clause of the 8th amendment; denial of §2254 habeas corpus
relief affirmed)
37. Rawlings v. Kentucky, 448 U.S. 98 (1980) (assuming
that defendant and others were illegally detained in a house for 45 minutes
while the police obtained a search warrant for the premises, the detention
was in a "congenial atmosphere;" defendant lacked standing to object to
search of his companion's purse for his illegal drugs; drug conviction
affirmed)
38. United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83 (1980)
("automatic standing" doctrine of the decision in Jones v. United States,
362 U.S. 257 (1960), is overruled; defendants charged with possessory crimes
no longer have automatic standing to object to the search and seizure of
the item unlawfully possessed; order granting suppression of evidence reversed)
39. Sumner v. Mata, 449 U.S. 539 (1980) (28 U.S.C.
§2254(d), requiring deference to factual determinations made by state
courts, requires deference to factual determinations of state appellate
courts as well as state trial courts; when granting §2254 habeas corpus
relief, the federal district court should include in its opinion the reasoning
which led it to conclude that deference to the state court factual determinations
was inappropriate; order granting §2254 relief reversed)
40. Michael M. v. Superior Court, 450 U.S. 464
(1981) (California's statutory rape statute, which punishes males for having
sexual intercourse with under-18 females, but does not punish women who
have sexual intercourse with males under 18, does not unlawfully discriminate
against males, and is constitutional; conviction affirmed) (plurality opinion)
41. Smith v. Phillips, 455 U.S. 209 (1981) (defendant
was not denied a fair trial, even though one juror submitted during the
trial an application for employment as an investigator for the district
attorney's office, and even though the prosecuting attorney withheld the
information about the juror's job application from the trial court and
the defendant's attorney until after the trial; order granting §2254
habeas corpus relief reversed)
42. Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U.S. 667 (1982) (where
a defendant in a criminal trial successfully moves for a mistrial, 5th
amendment double jeopardy clause bars retrial only if the conduct giving
rise to the mistrial was prosecutorial or judicial conduct intended to
provoke the defendant into moving for a mistrial; conviction reinstated)
43. United States v. Valenzuela-Bernal, 458 U.S. 858 (1982) (defendant, an alien, was arrested and charged with smuggling aliens into this country illegally; three of the passengers in defendant's car, also aliens, were also arrested; two of the passengers were then interviewed by a an assistant United States attorney, who concluded that they did not possess evidence material to the prosecution or defense of defendant, whereupon the two passengers were deported to Mexico; held, the mere fact that the government deports such witnesses is not sufficient to establish a violation of the 5th amendment due process clause or the 6th amendment confrontation clause, absent a showing that the evidence lost would be both material and favorable to the defense; the Executive Branch's responsibility to enforce Congressional immigration policy justifies deportation of illegal-alien witnesses upon Executive's good faith determination that they possess no evidence favorable to the defendant in a criminal prosecution; conviction reinstated)
44. Marshall v. Lonberger, 459 U.S. 422 (1982)
(guilty plea did not violate due process; order granting §2254 habeas
corpus relief reversed)
45. Texas v. Brown, 460 U.S. 730 (1983) (warrantless
search of defendant's automobile did not violate the 4th amendment; drug
conviction reinstated) (plurality opinion)
46. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213 (1983) (overruling
the "two-pronged test" of Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108 (1964),
and Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410 (1969), which required
that showing of probable cause based on informer's report show both the
informer's basis of knowledge and the reliability of the informer; the
task of the magistrate is simply to determine whether, based on the totality
of the circumstances set forth in the affidavit in support of issuance
of a search warrant, there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence
of crime will be found in a particular place; drug conviction reinstated)
47. United States v. Knotts, 460 U.S. 276 (1983)
(this case involves use by narcotics police of a beeper or transponder,
i.e., a radio transmitter, usually battery operated, which emits periodic
signals that can be picked up by a radio receiver, to trace a can of chloroform
from its place of purchase to defendant's secluded cabin near Shell Lake,
Wisconsin; the governmental surveillance conducted here amounted principally
to the following of an automobile on public streets and highways, and "[w]e
have commented more than once on the diminished expectation of privacy
in an automobile;" "[a] person traveling in an automobile on public thoroughfares
has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements from one place
to another;" "[n]othing in the Fourth Amendment prohibited the police from
augmenting the sensory faculties bestowed upon them at birth with such
enhancement as science and technology afforded them in this case (!);"
"[w]e have never equated police efficiency with unconstitutionality, and
we decline to do so now;" although it is true that because of a failure
of visual surveillance the police were able to locate the chloroform only
because of the beeper, the scientific enhancement of this sort raises no
constitutional issues which visual surveillance would not also raise, since
a police car could have followed the automobile under surveillance to the
cabin; drug conviction reinstated)
48. United States v. Villamonte-Marquez, 462 U.S.
579 (1983) (4th amendment is not violated when customs officers, without
any suspicion of wrongdoing, board for inspection of documents a vessel
that is located in navigable waters providing ready access to the open
sea; drug conviction reinstated)
49. Oregon v. Bradshaw, 462 U.S. 1039 (1983) (after
being given Miranda warnings, the defendant requested counsel and
the interrogation ceased; a few minutes later, the suspect asked the police
what was going to happen to him now; held, the defendant's question amounted
to an initiation of further conversations with the police, and therefore
the rule of Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 777 (1981), does not bar
use of confession the defendant thereafter made in response to police questioning)
(plurality opinion)
50. Barclay v. Florida, 463 U.S. 939 (1983) (defendant's
death sentence did not violate U.S. Constitution, even though trial judge,
overriding jury's recommendation that defendant be sentence to life imprisonment,
relied on an aggravating circumstance that was not among the aggravating
circumstances established by the state death penalty statute) (plurality
opinion)
51. INS v. Delgado, 466 U.S. 210 (1984) ("factory
surveys" by INS to enforce immigration laws did not violate the 4th amendment,
even though they were conducted by armed agents displaying badges and carrying
walkie-talkies, some of whom stationed themselves at the exits of the factory,
while others moved systematically through the factory questioning employees,
and arresting, handcuffing, and leading away persons suspected to be illegal
aliens; "our review ... satisfies us that the encounters with the INS agents
were classic consensual encounters rather than Fourth Amendment seizures
(!);" order denying summary judgment to INS reversed)
52. United States v. Rodgers, 466 U.S. 475 (1984)
(18 U.S.C. §1001, which makes it a crime to make a false statement
in any matter within the jurisdiction of a federal agency, punishes persons
who lie to the FBI when questioned concerning an on-going criminal investigation;
dismissal of indictment reversed)
53. United States v. Gouveia, 467 U.S. 180 (1984)
(defendants, inmates of a federal prison, were suspected of murdering fellow
inmates and placed in administrative segregation; thereafter as a result
of prison disciplinary proceedings, prison officials concluded that defendants
had committed the murder; although federal prison regulations permit administrative
segregation for up to 90 days for disciplinary reasons, defendants were
kept there for periods ranging from 8 to 19 months, until their indictments
for murder; held, defendants' 6th amendment right to counsel attached only
when the indictment was returned, not when the authorized period of 90
days in administrative segregation expired; convictions reinstated)
54. Schall v. Martin, 467 U.S. 253 (1984) (upholding
constitutionality of New York state statute authorizing pretrial detention
of accused juvenile delinquents; order granting §2241 pretrial habeas
corpus relief reversed)
55. Ohio v. Johnson, 467 U.S. 493 (1984) (as a
result of a killing and theft of property, defendant was indicted on one
count each of murder, involuntary manslaughter, aggravated robbery, and
grand theft; at his arraignment and over the state's objection, defendant
pleaded guilty to the manslaughter and grand theft charges, and the remaining
charges were dismissed; held, the double jeopardy clause does not bar the
state from continuing its prosecution of defendant on the murder and robbery
charges; dismissal of murder and robbery charges reversed)
56. New York v. Quarles, 467 U.S. 649 (1984) (creating
"public safety" exception to holding in Miranda v. Arizona, 384
U.S. 436 (1966); conviction reinstated)
57. Richardson v. United States, 468 U.S. 317 (1984)
(no violation of defendant's double jeopardy rights; denial of defendant's
motion to bar retrial affirmed)
58. United States v. Abel, 469 U.S. 45 (1984) (federal
evidence rules permit impeachment of witness for bias; conviction reinstated)
59. United States v. Powell, 469 U.S. 57 (1984)
(court of appeals improperly carved out an exception to the decision in
Dunn
v. United States, 284 U.S. 290 (1932), which holds that a defendant
convicted by a jury on one count cannot attack the conviction because it
was inconsistent with the verdict of acquittal on another count; drug conviction
reinstated)
60. Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412 (1984) (partially
overruling Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510 (1968), which barred
prosecutor in a capital case from challenging for cause a juror opposed
to capital punishment unless the juror would automatically vote against
the death penalty; the test for determining whether a juror can be challenged
for cause because of his or her opposition to capital punishment is whether
the juror's views would prevent or substantially impair the performance
of his or her duties as a juror; order granting §2254 habeas corpus
relief reversed)
61. Ponte v. Real, 471 U.S. 491 (1985) (due process
does not require that prison officials' reasons for denying an inmate's
witness request appear in the administrative record of the disciplinary
hearing; although due process does require prison officials at some point
to state their reasons for refusing to call a witness, they may do so by
making the explanation part of the administrative record or by presenting
testimony in court if the prison disciplinary proceeding is later challenged
in court; order granting state habeas corpus relief reversed)
62. Garrett v. United States, 471 U.S. 773 (1985)
(no violation of defendant's double jeopardy rights; drug conviction affirmed)
63. United States v. Montoya De Hernandez, 473
U.S. 531 (1985) (defendant, arriving at Los Angeles International Airport
on a direct flight from Columbia, fit the "alimentary canal smuggler profile,"
and was reasonably suspected of being a "balloon swallower," i.e., a person
who attempts to smuggle drugs into this country hidden in her alimentary
canal; she was taken to a private area and given both a patdown and a strip
search; defendant was not permitted to leave and was told she would be
detained until either she agreed to X-raying or defecated into a waste
basket so that her excretions could be examined; defendant's requests to
make a telephone call or to talk to a lawyer were refused; 16 hours after
her flight had landed she was still being detained in the customs office
without any judicial authorization, at which time custom officials sought
and obtained a court order requiring her to submit to X-raying and to a
rectal examination; a physician then conducted the rectal examination and
found balloons of cocaine, at which time defendant was formally arrested;
held, customs officials may detain international travelers entering this
country if they have reasonable suspicion that the traveler is carrying
drugs in his or her alimentary canal; although defendant was held incommunicado
16 hours before a court order was sought, the detention was not unreasonably
long; drug conviction reinstated)
64. Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52 (1985) (in order
to attack a guilty plea entered on the advice of counsel claimed to have
been ineffective, defendant must prove both that counsel's representation
fell below an objective standard of reasonableness, and also that there
is a reasonable possibility that but for counsel's error, defendant would
not have pleaded guilty and would have gone to trial; order denying §2254
habeas corpus relief affirmed)
65. United States v. Mechanik, 475 U.S. 66 (1985)
(even assuming that the simultaneous presence and testimony of two government
witnesses before the grand jury that indicted defendant violated Rule 6(d)
of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and even though defendant exercising
reasonable diligence did not discover the claimed violation until the second
week of the trial, the trial jury's guilty verdict rendered harmless any
error occurring in the grand jury proceedings; we express no opinion as
to the appropriate remedy in a case where the violation of Rule 6(d) is
discovered before the commencement of the trial; the reversal of a conviction
entails substantial societal costs, and in this case the costs are far
too substantial to justify overturning the verdict because of an error
in the grand jury proceedings; conviction reinstated)
66. Lockhart v. McCree, 476 U.S. 162 (1986) (even
assuming that "death-qualifying" trial juries--that is, excusing for cause
at the guilt phase prospective jurors whose opposition to capital
punishment would prevent or substantially impair the performance of their
duties at the sentencing phase of a capital trial--in fact produces
somewhat more conviction-prone juries than non-death-qualified juries,
the use of death-qualifying procedures does not violate the Federal Constitution;
order granting §2254 habeas corpus relief reversed)
67. McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U.S. 79 (1986)
(under the Pennsylvania Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Act, visible possession
of a firearm is not an element of the offense charged, but is a "sentencing
consideration" which is proved by a preponderance of the evidence at sentencing
and, if so proved, requires a sentence of at least 5 years imprisonment
for the offense charged (but not greater than the sentence otherwise required
for the underlying offense); held, this scheme does not violate due process
of law; conviction and sentence affirmed)
68. Allen v. Illinois, 478 U.S. 364 (1986) (proceedings
under the Illinois Sexually Dangerous Persons Acts are not criminal within
the meaning of the 5th amendment self-incrimination clause, and therefore
a person may be committed under the Act on the basis of evidence obtained
in violation of the self-incrimination privilege, even though proceedings
under the Act cannot be brought unless the person has already been criminally
charged and unless in the commitment proceeding under the Act a sex crime
is proved, and even though proceedings under the Act are accompanied by
statutory procedural safeguards also found in criminal trials (right to
counsel, right to trial by jury, right to confront and cross-examine accusers,
and the requirement that sexual dangerousness be proved beyond a reasonable
doubt), and even though persons committed under the Act are detained in
a maximum security institution which also houses convicts needing psychiatric
care and which is run by the state department of corrections; judgment
committing the defendant under the Act is affirmed)
69. Colorado v. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157 (1986) (coercive
police activity is a necessary predicate to a finding that a confession
is involuntary for due process purposes; the confession of a mentally disturbed
person is voluntary and admissible if there was no police coercion; despite
the "heavy burden" language in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436
(1966), the state must prove waiver of Miranda rights only by a preponderance
of the evidence; conviction reinstated)
70. Colorado v. Bertine, 479 U.S. 367 (1986) (upholding
inventory search of impounded automobile belonging to person arrested for
DUI; drug conviction reinstated)
71. Connecticut v. Barrett, 479 U.S. 523 (1986)
(Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), does not bar admission
of oral statements reduced to writing where after being given Miranda warnings,
suspect refused to make a written statement but agreed to talk about the
crime; conviction reinstated)
72. California v. Brown, 479 U.S. 538 (1986) (at
the sentencing phase of defendant's capital trial, the judge instructed
the jury that it "must not be swayed by mere sentiment, conjecture, sympathy,
passion, prejudice, public opinion, or public feeling," and thereafter
defendant was sentenced to death; held, the antisympathy instruction did
not violate the defendant's federal constitutional rights; death sentence
reinstated)
73. Pennsylvania v. Finley, 481 U.S. 551 (1987)
(there is no federal constitutional right to appointed counsel in postconviction
relief proceedings; states have no obligation to provide postconviction
relief proceedings as an avenue of relief; order granting state postconviction
relief is reversed)
74. United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739 (1987)
(upholding constitutionality of preventive detention provisions of Bail
Reform Act of 1984; due process is not violated because preventive detention
of criminal suspects is "regulatory" rather than "penal;" and "[w]e have
repeatedly held that the government's regulatory interest in community
safety can, in appropriate circumstances, outweigh an individual's liberty
interest;" an individual's right to personal liberty may be "subordinated
to the greater needs of society;" nor does preventive detention of criminal
suspects found to be dangerous to the community offend the excessive bail
clause of the 8th amendment, and any language to the contrary in Stack
v. Boyle, 342 U.S. 1 (1951), is "dicta")
75. Hilton v. Braunskill, 481 U.S. 770 (1987) (in
deciding whether to release a §2254 petitioner from custody pending
an appeal from a district court order discharging the petitioner, the court
should take into account the possibility of flight, the risk that the petitioner
will pose a danger to the public if released, and the state's interest
in continued custody and rehabilitation; order denying stay of §2254
habeas corpus release order pending appeal is vacated)
76. Bourjaily v. United States, 483 U.S. 171 (1987)
(relaxing restrictions on admissibility of evidence introduced under the
out-of-court declaration of a co-conspirator exception to the hearsay rule;
drug conviction affirmed)
77. Solorio v. United States, 483 U.S. 435 (1987)
(overruling O'Callahan v.Parker, 395 U.S. 258 (1969), which barred
courts martial from trying servicemen unless the offense was "service connected;"
court martial conviction affirmed)
78. Lowenfield v. Phelps, 484 U.S. 231 (1987) (death
sentence was not rendered unconstitutional by inquiries and supplemental
charge to the jury during sentencing deliberations, or by reliance on aggravating
circumstance which duplicated element of capital crime; denial of §2254
habeas corpus relief is affirmed)
79. United States v. Robinson, 485 U.S. 25 (1987)
(Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609 (1965), which bars prosecutors
from commenting on defendant's refusal to take the stand, was not violated
where the prosecutor's reference in closing arguments to defendant's not
testifying was a fair response to claims made by defense counsel in his
closing arguments; conviction reinstated)
80. Huddleston v. United States, 485 U.S. 681 (1988)
(upholding admissibility of "other crimes, wrongs, or acts" evidence under
Rule 404(b) of the Federal Rules of Evidence; conviction affirmed)
81. Wheat v. United States, 486 U.S. 153 (1988)
(trial court did not err in declining defendant's waiver of his right to
conflict-free counsel and in refusing to permit defendant's proposed substitution
of attorneys; drug conviction affirmed)
82. Braswell v. United States, 487 U.S. 99 (1988)
(custodian of corporate records may not resist a subpoena for the corporate
records on the ground the act of production would incriminate him in violation
of the 5th amendment self-incrimination clause; order refusing to quash
subpoena affirmed)
83. Lockhart v. Nelson, 488 U. S. 33 (1988) (double
jeopardy clause does not forbid retrial following reversal if the sum of
the evidence offered by the state and admitted--whether erroneously or
not--by the court at the first trial would have been sufficient to sustain
a guilty verdict; order granting §2254 habeas corpus relief reversed)
84. Arizona v. Youngblood, 488 U. S. 51 (1988)
(unless a criminal defendant can show bad faith on the part of the police,
failure to preserve potentially useful evidence does not constitute a denial
of due process of law; conviction reinstated)
85. United States v. Sokolow, 490 U. S. 1 (1989)
(DEA agents had reasonable suspicion and were therefore lawfully authorized
to make an investigatory stop of defendant as he deplaned at Honolulu International
Airport because prior to the stop the agents knew: (1) defendant had paid
$2100 for 2 airplane tickets from a roll of twenty dollar bills; (2) defendant
traveled under a name that did not match the name under which his telephone
was listed; (3) defendant's original destination was Miami, a source city
for illegal drugs; (4) defendant stayed in Miami for only 48 hours, even
though the roundtrip flight from Honolulu to Miami takes 20 hours; (5)
defendant appeared nervous during his trip; and (6) defendant checked none
of his luggage; drug conviction reinstated)
86. Alabama v. Smith, 490 U. S. 794 (1989) (no
due process presumption of vindictiveness in sentencing arose where defendant
pleaded guilty and was sentenced, the guilty plea was later vacated, and
defendant was then tried for and convicted of the same offense and sentenced
to a longer term of imprisonment than he had received following the guilty
plea; Simpson v. Rice, 395 U.S. 711 (1969), overruled; conviction
reinstated)
87. Murray v. Giarratano, 492 U. S. 1 (1989) (U.S.
Constitution does not guarantee appointed counsel to indigents sentenced
to death who seek state postconviction relief)
88. Duckworth v. Eagan, 492 U. S. 195 (1989) (Miranda
v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) was not violated where police gave
the required warnings to suspect but added this sentence: "We have no
way of giving you a lawyer, but one will be appointed for you if you wish
if and when you go to court (!);" order granting §2254 habeas
corpus relief reversed)
89. United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez, 494 U. S.
259 (1990) (alien defendant, whose Mexican residences were searched by
DEA agents, lacks sufficient voluntary connections to the United States
to be entitled to the protections of the 4th amendment; the use of the
term "people" in the 4th amendment means that its protections, unlike those
of the 5th and 6th amendments, extend only "to a class of persons who are
part of a national community or who have otherwise developed sufficient
connection with this country to be considered part of that community;"
court is only willing to assume that the protections of the 4th amendment
apply to illegal aliens in this country; the 4th amendment's "purpose was
to restrict searches and seizures which might be conducted by the United
States in domestic matters;" "[w]ere defendant to prevail, aliens with
no attachment to this country might well bring actions for damages to remedy
claimed violations of the Fourth Amendment in foreign countries or in international
waters (!);" drug conviction reinstated)
90. Blystone v. Pennsylvania, 494 U. S. 299 (upholding
constitutionality of Pennsylvania death penalty statute; conviction and
sentence affirmed)
91. Michigan v. Harvey, 494 U. S. 344 (1990) (statement
extracted from a defendant by the police in violation of the 6th amendment
right to counsel and inadmissible as substantive evidence of guilt may
nonetheless be used as a prior inconsistent statement to impeach the defendant's
credibility if the defendant takes the stand; conviction reinstated)
92. Boyde v. California, 494 U. S. 370 (1990) (jury
instruction that the jury shall impose a death sentence if aggravating
circumstances outweigh mitigating circumstances does not violate 8th amendment;
claim that another instruction to jury restricted impermissibly jury's
consideration of mitigating circumstances is rejected because there is
no reasonable likelihood that the jury applied the challenged instruction
in a way that prevented the consideration of constitutionally relevant
evidence; conviction and sentence affirmed)
93. Butler v. McKellar, 494 U. S. 407 (1990) (Arizona v. Roberson, 486 U.S. 675 (1988), which bars police from interrogating a suspect about other crimes once the suspect has received the Miranda warnings and invoked the right to counsel, was not dictated by prior precedent and therefore is not retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review at time of Roberson decision; order denying §2254 habeas corpus relief is affirmed).