Posted by Orin Kerr:
Interesting Vote Line-Up:
In a decision announced this morning, [1]Johnson v. United States, the
Supreme Court decided by a 5-4 vote that the statute of limitations
that sets when a federal prisoner can challenge his sentence if it was
enhanced based on a since-vacated prior state conviction starts to run
when the prisoner receives notice that the state court conviction was
vacated -- provided that the prisoner exercised due diligence in state
court after entry of judgment in the federal case.
Okay, so it's not exactly a hot button issue. Still, the vote
line-up was rather unusual: Justice Souter wrote the [2]majority
opinion joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice O'Connor, Justice
Thomas, and Justice Breyer. Justice Kennedy wrote the [3]dissenting
opinion, which offered a more defendant-friendly approach that did not
require due diligence by the prisoner, and was joined by Justice
Stevens, Justice Scalia, and Justice Ginsburg.
References
1. http://scotus.ap.org/scotus/03-9685p.zs.pdf
2. http://scotus.ap.org/scotus/03-9685p.zo.pdf
3. http://scotus.ap.org/scotus/03-9685p.zd.pdf
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