1898—William Orville Douglas, who, alas, will become the longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history, is born in the town of Maine in Minnesota.
2025—A divided panel of the Fifth Circuit rules (in Berryman v. Huffman) that a habeas petitioner was entitled to have his entire indictment dismissed when a state court determined that he was denied his constitutional right to a speedy trial as to one count in the indictment but not as to the second count. The panel split divides two Biden appointees. In dissent from Judge Dana Douglas’s ruling, Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez points out that the Supreme Court “has never considered whether dismissal of the entire indictment is the only remedy for a speedy trial violation as to only one count of a multi-count indictment.” Therefore, under the deferential habeas standard set forth in the law known as AEDPA, there was no “clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court,” that warranted dismissal of the entire indictment.
In a petition for rehearing en banc, Mississippi will slam the ruling as “manifestly wrong.” The Fifth Circuit will grant rehearing en banc and summarily affirm the district court’s denial of habeas relief.