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

AuthorCortney Dalton,Christopher Dollar,Craig Hemmens
DOI10.1177/07340168211059518
Published date01 March 2022
Date01 March 2022
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 Courts voting patterns and opin-
ion authorship. Thirteen of the Courts 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 Courts decisions reveals some interesting patterns. 43 percent (29 of
67) of the Courts decisions were unanimous, while 14 decisions had either 81or72 majorities. 64
percent (43 of 67) of the decisions were decided by a vote of at least 72. 16 cases were decided by a
63 margin while just 8 cases (12%) were decided by a 54 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 timesas 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, WashingtonState University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
Email: craig.hemmens@wsu.edu
Article
Criminal Justice Review
2022, Vol. 47(1) 516
© 2021 Georgia State University
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/07340168211059518
journals.sagepub.com/home/cjr

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