Constitutional criminal procedure doctrine and the force of stare decisis
The import and force of stare decisis is often discussed in the context of Roe and other hot-button non-criminal constitutional rulings. But, in a fascinating little concurring opinion authored by Justice Alito (which Justice Kennedy joined) in yesterday’s ruling in Montejo v. Louisiana, the import and force of stare decisis is discussed in the context of criminal procedure doctrine. Toward the end of Justice Alito’s opinon, he gets in this particularly amusing swipe at the Montejo dissenters’ emphasis on stare decisis:
I can only assume that the dissent thinks that our constitutional precedents are like certain wines, which are most treasured when they are neither too young nor too old, and that Jackson, at 23, is in its prime, whereas Belton, at 28, had turned brownish and vinegary.
Though Justice Alito’s concurring opinion in Montejo seems mostly intended to call others to task for now finding stare decisis religion, the fundamental story is the Supreme Court’s recent work overruling two significant constitutional criminal procedure rulings (both Jackson and Belton). That reality has me thinking a bit more about whether, descriptively or normatively, stare decisis is of different (and lesser?) nature and force in the arena of constitutional criminal procedure doctrine.
Turning these issues toward sentencing doctrine, I suspect I am not the only sentencing fan who might hope that stare decisis might be given less weight in the arena of constitutional criminal procedure. For example, I wish the Court might be willing to reconsider its now 60-year-old sentencing due process ruling in Williams v. New York (as well as more recent variations on Williams in McMillian and Watts). And I suspect some other sentencing fans might want and wish the Supreme Court to be willing to reconsider the much younger rulings like Blakely and Booker. I have little doubt that different folks have different views as to which constitutional criminal precedents seem now to have turned brownish and vinegary.