GPS Monitoring and More: Criminal Law Cases in the Supreme Court’s 2011-12 Term

Abstract

This article examines some of the most notable criminal-law-related opinions of the Supreme Court’s 2011-12 Term, focusing on those decisions that have the greatest impact upon the states.

Without a doubt, the past Term was "big." The headline on the civil side of the docket was the Affordable Care Act decision. The blockbuster on the criminal side was United States v. Jones, the Global Positioning System (GPS) monitoring case. In Jones, the Court showed that some old things can be new again — the justices gave us “new” ways of thinking about Fourth Amendment searches. There were other key criminal-law rulings as well, including on effective assistance and plea negotiations, confrontation, juries and criminal fines, juvenile life-without-parole sentences, and double jeopardy. And as in the previous Term, the Court issued several opinions emphasizing the deference to be afforded state courts on federal habeas corpus review. The article concludes with a brief preview of the 2012-2013 Term.

Keywords: Supreme Court, criminal law, criminal procedure, Fourth Amendment, constitutional law

JEL Classification: K14, K40, K41, K42