4 boxes of new Supreme Court opinions...

... with SCOTUSblog live-blogging here.

1. Brumfeld v. Cain (PDF). About habeas relief and the question when a person is "mentally retarded and therefore ineligible for the death penalty."

Pursuant to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), Brumfield could secure relief only if the state court’s rejection of his claim was either “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States,” or was “based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” 28 U. S. C. §§2254(d)(1), (2)....

We do not deny that Brumfield’s crimes were terrible, causing untold pain for the victims and their families. But we are called upon today to resolve a different issue. There has already been one death that society rightly condemns. The question here is whether Brumfield cleared AEDPA’s procedural hurdles, and was thus entitled to a hearing to show that he so lacked the capacity for self-determination that it would violate the Eighth Amendment to permit the State to impose the “law’s most severe sentence,” Hall, 572 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 7), and take his life as well.

2. Ohio v. Clark (PDF). This is a confrontation clause case with no dissenting opinions. Justice Alito writes the main opinion, and there's a concurring opinion written by Justice Scalia that is joined by Justices Thomas and Ginsburg. Everyone accepts what the trial court did: allow the hearsay evidence that was the statement a 3-year-old boy to his pre-school teacher that identified the defendent as responsible for the marks she saw on his body. From the main opinion:

The Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause, which is binding on the States through the Fourteenth Amendment, provides: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to be confronted with the witnesses against him.” In Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U. S. 56, 66 (1980), we interpreted the Clause to permit the admission of out-of-court statements by an unavailable witness, so long as the statements bore “adequate ‘indicia of reliability.’” Such indicia are present, we held, if “the evidence falls within a firmly rooted hearsay exception” or bears “particularized guarantees of trustworthiness.” Ibid.

From SCOTUSblog: "Lovers of Justice Scalia and/or the confrontation clause should DEFINITELY check out Scalia's concurrence in the judgment in Ohio v. Clark. It is some sharply worded stuff -- accuses Alito of "shoveling dirt" on the grave of the key precedents, and using intentionally confusing "dicta" to try to undermine the clause's protections." I'll be getting to all of that later.

3. Davis v. Ayala (PDF). 5-4. "Holding: Any federal constitutional error that may have occurred by excluding Ayala's attorney from part of the Batson hearing was harmless."

4. Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans (PDF). "Texas's specialty license plate design constitutes government speech, and thus Texas was entitled to refuse to issue plates featuring the proposed Confederate Veterans' design." 5-4, by Justice Breyer, with Justice Thomas joining the liberals. Justice Alito has a dissent, which is joined by the rest of the conservatives (Roberts, Scalia, and Kennedy.)

5. McFadden v. United States (PDF). "When a controlled substance is an analogue, §841(a)(1) requires the Government to establish that the defendant knew he was dealing with a substance regulated under the Controlled Substances Act or Analogue Act." McFadden was selling bath salts. The case is remanded to determine if the error was harmless (which it is if no rational jury would find that McFadden didn't know).

6. Reed v. Town of Gilbert (PDF). "The Sign Code’s provisions are content-based regulations of speech that do not survive strict scrutiny." Justice Thomas writes the main opinion. There are also 2 concurring opinions.