Recent Legal Developments: Criminal Justice Decisions of the United States Supreme Court, 2,020 Term

• Date: 01 March 2022
• Published date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/07340168211059518
• Subject Matter: Articles

Recent Legal Developments:

Criminal Justice Decisions of

the United States Supreme

Court, 2,020 Term

Craig Hemmens , Cortney Dalton,

and Christopher Dollar

Abstract

In this paper we review and analyze the criminal justice-related decisions of the 2,020 term of the

United States Supreme Court. We also provide a summary of the Court’s voting patterns and opin-

ion authorship. Thirteen of the Court’s 57 decisions touched on criminal justice. There were sig-

nificant decisions involving the Fourth Amendment, the Eighth Amendment, and federal criminal

statutes. Each of these is discussed in turn.

Keywords

Supreme Court, criminal justice, law

Introduction

During its 2020 term, the United State Supreme Court issued a total of 67 decisions on the merits,

including 55 signed opinions, 8 summary reversals, and 2 unsigned opinions. Of the 57 signed

merits opinions issued, 13 (24%) dealt primarily with a criminal justice-related issue. This is the

fewest number of criminal justice-related decisions in over 25 years. A number of these decisions

dealt with important, if not particularly newsworthy, issues such as the interpretation of federal stat-

utes. A few, however, dealt with controversial issues, including the Fourth Amendment and Eighth

Amendment.

An examination of all of the Court’s decisions reveals some interesting patterns. 43 percent (29 of

67) of the Court’s decisions were unanimous, while 14 decisions had either 8–1or7–2 majorities. 64

percent (43 of 67) of the decisions were decided by a vote of at least 7–2. 16 cases were decided by a

6–3 margin while just 8 cases (12%) were decided by a 5–4 margin. The makeup of cases accepted

and decided by the Court was in line with past years. The vast majority of cases were taken from the

United States Courts of Appeal. The Ninth Circuit had the most cases reviewed (16) and was reversed

15 times—as the Ninth Circuit is both the largest Court of Appeals and the most liberal, neither of

Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.

Corresponding Author:

Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.

Email: craig.hemmens@wsu.edu

Article

Criminal Justice Review

2022, Vol. 47(1) 5–16

© 2021 Georgia State University

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DOI: 10.1177/07340168211059518

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