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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Courts - SCOTUS decides Melendez-Diaz, others; Indiana implications of M-D

Today the SCOTUS has decided the case of Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts (07-591), on whether a state forensic analyst’s laboratory report prepared for use in a criminal prosecution is “testimonial” evidence. Justice Scalia's opinion concludes:

This case involves little more than the application of our holding in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U. S. 36. The Sixth Amendment does not permit the prosecution to prove its case via ex parte out-of-court affidavits, and the admission of such evidence against Melendez-Diaz was error. We therefore reverse the judgment of the Appeals Court of Massachusetts and remand the case for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
The Court has released a slew of opinions today - here is another of high interest:

Safford United School District #1 v. Redding (08-479), on whether the Fourth Amendment prohibits public school officials from conducting a strip search of a student suspected of possessing and distributing a prescription drug on campus in violation of school policy. Justice Souter's opinion begins:

The issue here is whether a 13-year-old student’s Fourth Amendment right was violated when she was subjected toa search of her bra and underpants by school officials acting on reasonable suspicion that she had brought for-bidden prescription and over-the-counter drugs to school. Because there were no reasons to suspect the drugs pre-sented a danger or were concealed in her underwear, we hold that the search did violate the Constitution, but because there is reason to question the clarity with whichthe right was established, the official who ordered the unconstitutional search is entitled to qualified immunity from liability.

The above links thanks to SCOTUSBlog's "live blog" feature.

Indiana implications of Melendez-Diaz: As noted in this June 24th ILB entry, at least two Indiana cases argued before our Supreme Court in 2008 have probably been awaiting this ruling.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 25, 2009 10:20 AM
Posted to Courts in general