Today’s Action at the Supreme Court on Nondelegation, Race, Child Murder, and Confessions

Unfortunately, in its order list this morning, the Supreme Court declined to hear RMS of Georgia, LLC d/b/a Choice Refrigerants v. EPA, the nondelegation doctrine case I discussed last week. It may yet, however, take up the soon-pending petition in Pheasant v. United States, which so far as I can tell has yet to be set for a conference date but is fully briefed. Pheasant remains a very hard case for the government to defend if the nondelegation doctrine means anything at all.

Alongside the usual array of denials and other orders, the Court handled a few other items of business with comment. A 6–3 per curiam opinion reinstated the New York state conviction of Pedro Hernandez in the notorious Etan Patz case, ruling that the Second Circuit had overstepped its bounds on questions related to the admission in evidence of Hernandez’s confessions and how the jury was instructed in considering them. Legally, the case is a shot across the bow at federal courts tempted to second-guess too closely the rulings of state courts in criminal cases: “The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) imposes strict limits on federal courts’ power to grant habeas relief to a prisoner convicted in state court. District courts and courts of appeals have sometimes chafed under these restraints, and when they have strayed too far from the modest role that AEDPA prescribes, we have summarily reversed their decisions. . . . We must do the same today.”

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

Featured Tags

Manage following

Supreme Court

Unfortunately, in its order list this morning, the Supreme Court declined to hear RMS of Georgia, LLC d/b/a Choice Refrigerants v. EPA, the nondelegation doctrine case I discussed last week. It may yet, however, take up the soon-pending petition in Pheasant v. United States, which so far as I can tell has yet to be set for a conference date but is fully briefed. Pheasant remains a very hard case for the government to defend if the nondelegation doctrine means anything at all.

Alongside the usual array of denials and other orders, the Court handled a few other items of business with comment. A 6–3 per curiam opinion reinstated the New York state conviction of Pedro Hernandez in the notorious Etan Patz case, ruling that the Second Circuit had overstepped its bounds on questions related to the admission in evidence of Hernandez’s confessions and how the jury was instructed in considering them. Legally, the case is a shot across the bow at federal courts tempted to second-guess too closely the rulings of state courts in criminal cases: “The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) imposes strict limits on federal courts’ power to grant habeas relief to a prisoner convicted in state court. District courts and courts of appeals have sometimes chafed under these restraints, and when they have strayed too far from the modest role that AEDPA prescribes, we have summarily reversed their decisions. . . . We must do the same today.”