Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-5924_n6io.pdf
Page Number: 75

14 

RAMOS v. LOUISIANA 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

weigh  the  costs  and  benefits.23  All  these  charges  are
overblown. 

First, it is quite unfair to criticize Justice White for not
engaging in a detailed discussion of the original meaning of 
the Sixth Amendment jury-trial right since he had already
done that just two years before in his opinion for the Court 
in Williams v. Florida, 399 U. S. 78, 92–100 (1970).  In Wil-
liams, after examining that history, he concluded that the
Sixth Amendment did not incorporate every feature of the
common-law  right  (a  conclusion  that  the  majority,  by  the
way,  does  not  dispute).    And  in  Apodaca,  he  built  on  the 
analysis in Williams.  Accordingly, there was no need to re-
peat what had been said before. 

Second, it is similarly unfair to criticize Justice White for 
not discussing the prior decisions that commented on jury 
unanimity.  None  of  those  decisions  went  beyond  saying 
that this was a feature of the common-law right or cursorily
stating that unanimity was required.24  And as noted, Wil-
liams had already held that the Sixth Amendment did not 
preserve all aspects of the common-law right.

Third, the failure of Justice White (and Justice Powell) to 
take into account the supposedly racist origins of the Loui-
siana and Oregon laws should not be counted as a defect for 
the reasons already discussed.  See supra, at 4–5. 

Fourth, it is hard to know what to make of the function-
alist charge.  One Member of the majority explicitly disa-
vows this criticism, see ante, at 2 (SOTOMAYOR, J., concur-
ring in part), and it is most unlikely that all the Justices in
the majority are ready to label all functionalist decisions as 
poorly reasoned.  Most of the landmark criminal procedure 
decisions  from  roughly  Apodaca’s  time  fall  into  that  cate-
gory.  See Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643, 654 (1961) (Fourth 
Amendment);  Miranda  v.  Arizona,  384  U. S.  436,  444 

—————— 

23 Ante, at 13. 
24 See, e.g., Andres, 333 U. S., at 748; Thompson, 170 U. S., at 351.