Recent Criminal Decisions of the United States Supreme Court: The 2005-2006 Term

In this term, as in the previous one, the United States Supreme Court reasserted the rule of law in the context of the detainees in the war on terror. At the same time, however, the addition of two new justices shifted the Court’s ideological balance to the right. In terms of criminal cases, the Court handed down a mixed bag of decisions. It was a bad term for Fourth Amendment claimants with the government prevailing in four of five search-and-seizure cases.

Outside the context of the Fourth Amendment, however, criminal defendants fared a little better. In this article, I review some of the Court’s decisions in the criminal context. In a separate article, I review some of the Court’s decisions in the civil context.