Supreme Court agrees to hear 'double jeopardy' case in the fall

This will potentially throw a massive gear in the Democrats plans to bypass Presidential pardons by using state law.

CNN - Supreme Court agrees to hear 'double jeopardy' case in the fall

Washington (CNN)The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a case in the fall to consider whether the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment bars states and the federal government from separately trying the same person for the same criminal offense.
The double jeopardy case stems from the prosecution of Terance Martez Gamble, who was pulled over by police in 2015 for a broken tail light. Marijuana paraphernalia and a firearm were found in the car during the stop.

"Current precedent allows such prosecutions by 'separate sovereigns.' If the court overrules its prior precedent, it could make it more difficult for a state to try someone who has been pardoned by the federal government if trial proceedings had already begun for the federal offense," said Stephen Vladeck, CNN's Supreme Court analyst and a law professor at the University of Texas School of Law.

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5th Amendment to the US Constitution -

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Some background -

The 4 main categories for double jeopardy application are -
* - retrial after an acquittal;
* - retrial after a conviction;
* - retrial after certain mistrials; and
* - multiple punishment


Currently the US uses a system (lophole) called separate sovereigns. It views the Federal government and State government as separate governments / entities, allowing a person to be charged with a crime at the Federal level as well as be charged with the same / parallel crime at the State level(and vice-versa). This loophole allowed a go-around of the 5th amendment protection against double jeopardy (charged for the same crime twice).

A Supreme court ruling back in the late 1960's applied the double jeopardy standard to the states but it never addressed the separate sovereigns standard.

The case in question now was a person who was arrested for and charged with the same crimes at both levels of government. His appeal was based on the double jeopardy violation since he was charged with and punished for the same crime by both systems using the same offense and evidence. Generally speaking a prosecution is rarely doubled by using both systems. The facts / evidence is looked at and usually a determination is made on which entity, state or federal, has the better, more solid case. Justice is not really served by laying on a double whammy and wasting the peoples resources to go after the same person at the same time for the same crimes by different levels of government.

If scotus rules in this guys favor, and baring any narrow ruling applications, will have a profound impact on our double jeopardy system. Specifically a person who is dealt with in one system and the case is resolved is the end of the line.

This case is important for another reason also - It would apply to pardons, either by a Governor or by the President.

From a political aspect it would destroy the backup plans Democrats had by using states to prosecute crimes linked to Trump in order to bypass his pardon authority.

Should be interesting to see how this plays out.

hrrrm wonder if that is why they didnt want kavanaugh on the bench to rule on this....

www.theatlantic.com... well the atlantic seems to somewhat agree with your premise as it would let trump do just that

If Trump were to shut down the investigation or pardon his associates, “the escape hatch, then, is for cases to be farmed out or picked up by state-level attorneys general, who cannot be shut down by Trump and who generally—but with some existing limits—can charge state crimes even after a federal pardon,” explained Elie Honig, a former assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey. “If Hatch gets his way, however, a federal pardon would essentially block a subsequent state-level prosecution.”

I hope he has a good lawyer. If it was me I would want Alex Trebek .

originally posted by: RalagaNarHallas
hrrrm wonder if that is why they didnt want kavanaugh on the bench to rule on this....

That is one possibility.

On the other side of the conspiracy spectrum is it has to do with Qdrops and the use of military tribunals to try corrupt politicians in January. Kavanaugh, during his time with the Bush administration, dealt with the enemy combatant designation for terrorist.

For those who dont follow Q the gist is instead of trying to use the federal court system to try corrupt politicians / employees of the deep state, where the federal courts are viewed as politically compromised, military court system would be used. Given the US is in a technical state of war (w3ar on terror) and given the actions by corrupt politicians to bring trump down they can be tried in a military court setting.

Why do people think Democrats recently were pushing to end the AUMF for the war on terror?

What we are seeing is corrupt politicians / etc panicking. If Kavanaugh gets confirmed and Democrats dont win in the midterms the game is over for them and they know it.

It is why I fully expect the cabal to stop Trump using any method they can, including assassination.