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Linda Greenhouse reports, "Justices Rule on Retroactivity of Decisions," in the New York Times.In a new pro-defendant twist on federalism, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that state courts are free to give criminal defendants the benefit of new constitutional developments, even when federal courts would be foreclosed from doing so. Over the dissent of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who warned that the decision undermined ?our role under the Constitution as the final arbiter of federal law,? the court ruled in favor of a Minnesota man convicted of sexually abusing a child in 1996. Years after his conviction had become final on appeal, the man, Stephen Danforth, went back to state court seeking the benefit of a 2004 Supreme Court decision that enhanced the right of defendants to confront their accusers in open court...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on February 21, 2008 (boomark / email).