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On a busy criminal justice day, SCOTUS applies ACCA broadly in Rodriquez

By Douglas A. Berman

Continuing its somewhat puzzling approach (and voting paterns) in ACCA cases, the Supreme Court today in United States v. Rodriquez, No. 06-1646 (available here) held that state recidivism enhancements can help trigger ACCA's long sentencing provisions.  The vote was 6-3 with Justice Alito writing for the majority and Justice Souter writing a dissent joined by Justices Stevens and Ginsburg. Based on a quick read, it seems that the Justice avoided some of the intricate constitutional and statutory issues lurking around Rodriquez, but I am going to need a lot more time to process the opinions along with all the other criminal justice work the Justices did today (as summarized here at SCOTUSblog). I have started my analysis of the SCOTUS work with Rodriquez because it strikes me as the most practically consequential of the decisions handed down today...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 19, 2008 (boomark / email).