SCOTUS grants cert on Confrontation Clause case, and Justice Sotomayor has much to say about two criminal case denieal

The Supreme Court is back in action this morning after a short hiatus, getting started with this new order list that has most of its limited action in criminal law cases.  Specifically, the Justices granted certiorari in a single case, Hemphill v. New York, 20-637, which presents this criminal procedure issue:

Whether, or under what circumstances, a criminal defendant, whose argumentation or introduction of evidence at trial “opens the door” to the admission of responsive evidence that would otherwise be barred by the rules of evidence, also forfeits his right to exclude evidence otherwise barred by the confrontation clause.

In addition, in Brown v. Polk County, No. 20–982, a case concerning Fourth Amendment requirements for a penetrative cavity search of a pretrial detainee, Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued this lengthy statement respecting the denial of certiorari.  And in Whatley v. Warden, Ga. Diag. & Classification Prison, No. 20–363, a case concerning defense counsel’s failure to object to a capital defendant’s shackling, Justice Sotomayor issued this lengthy dissent from the denial of certiorari.