A number of decisions from the Supremes today, including two reversing murder convictions under the Batson doctrine, which holds that peremptory challenges during jury selection may not be exercised in a racially discriminatory manner. In one, Johnson v. California, Justices Scalia and Thomas part company — Justice Thomas being the sole dissenter arguing the proposition that Batson left the states lots of flexibility as to compliance with its test for determining whether a Batson claim is valid. The other decision, Miller-El v. Dretke, reversed a capital murder conviction (Thomas and Scalia were together in dissent, along with Chief Justice Rehnquist). It is lengthy and requires more study before responsible comment.
