The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/courts/supreme-court/)
Purse snatching and pickpocketing can amount to violent felonies for purposes of the federal Armed Career Criminal Act, which requires mandatory 15-year sentences for people convicted of possessing firearms if they have been found guilty of three violent felonies or serious drug charges. The justices divided 5-4 on the issue.
The Supreme Court refused to consider whether juries should decide on whether defendants should be required to pay restitution. Three justices dissented.
A Colorado-based judicial council said it could not entertain complaints that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had made false statements during his confirmation hearings because the Senate had approved Kavanaugh. The council has no jurisdiction over the high court.
A majority of Supreme Court justices sounded unlikely to overturn more than a century of doctrine that allows states and the federal government to prosecute someone for the same criminal conduct. The case has implications for any pardons that President Trump might issue for those prosecuted by special counsel Robert Mueller.
The Supreme Court on Thursday will take up the case of a small-time Alabama felon, Terance Gamble, who complains that his convictions by state and federal prosecutors for the same gun possession crime violate constitutional protections against double jeopardy. The issue could affect state plans to prosecute Paul Manafort if he is pardoned by President Trump.
As the Supreme Court signals it may rule in favor of a defendant who claims civil forfeiture violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “excessive fines,” a coalition of progressives, conservatives and libertarians is preparing to celebrate. But local governments could lose a major revenue source.
Based on Wednesday’s oral arguments, it could be a unanimous vote for Tyson Timbs, who says police shouldn’t have seized his $42,000 Land Rover in a small drug case.
The justices hear arguments Wednesday on whether the Constitution’s prohibition of “excessive fines” applies to the states. Conservative and liberal groups both are protesting the trend of more fines and forfeitures.
The Supreme Court is considering whether to allow lawsuits claiming abuse of police power in retaliation for exercising free speech rights. The case argued on Monday concerned a claim for retaliatory arrest at a festival in remote Alaska.
Noting the flood of anxious tweets and the creation of a tongue-in-cheek protective bubble by TV host Jimmy Kimmel, after Justice Ginsburg was hospitalized last week, BBC observed that “half of America panics when this woman falls ill.”