United States v. Haymond
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 26, 2019 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- June 26, 2019
- Term
- October Term 2018
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Gorsuch
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
- Constitutional ruling
- Federal law held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
II Together with the right to vote, those who wrote our Constitution considered the right to trial by jury "the heart and lungs, the mainspring and the center wheel" of our liberties, without which "the body must die; the watch must run down; the government must become arbitrary." Letter from Clarendon to W. Pym (Jan. 27, 1766), in 1 Papers of John Adams 169 (R. Taylor ed. 1977). Just as the right to vote sought to preserve the people's authority over their government's executive and legislative functions, the right to a jury trial sought to preserve the people's authority over its judicial functions. J. Adams, Diary Entry (Feb. 12, 1771), in 2 Diary and Autobiography of John Adams 3 (L. Butterfield ed. 1961); see also 2 J. Story, Commentaries on the Constitution § 1779, pp. 540-541 (4th ed. 1873). Toward that end, the Framers adopted the Sixth Amendment's promise that "[i]n all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury." In the Fifth Amendment, they added that no one may be deprived of liberty without "due process of law." Together, these pillars of the Bill of Rights ensure that the government must prove to a jury every criminal charge beyond a reasonable doubt, an ancient rule that has "extend[ed] down centuries." Apprendi v. New Jersey , 530 U.S. 466, 477, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). But when…
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