Court Opinion

ID: 9426358
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:17:39.90182+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:00.521480
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Stewart,
with whom Mr. Justice Marshall and Mr. Justice Blackmun concur,
dissenting.
It is clear to me that the judgment of the Supreme Court of Ohio rests upon both the Constitution of the State of Ohio and the Constitution of the United States. That being so, the writ of certiorari must be dismissed as improvidently granted under the doctrine of Jankovich v. Toll Road Comm’n, 379 U. S. 487.
The issue that the Ohio court thought it had to decide could hardly have been more unambiguously stated than it was by Justice William B. Brown in the opening paragraph of the opinion of the court:
“The question presented is whether testimony, concerning certain statements made by appellant to his parole officer about his involvement in a crime, was received at trial in violation of appellant’s privilege against self-incrimination, as guaranteed by *261Section 10, Article I of the Ohio Constitution, and the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” 38 Ohio St. 2d 291, 294, 313 N. E. 2d 396, 398-399.*
I would dismiss the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted.

For more than 100 years the Ohio Supreme Court in other than per curiam opinions has stated the law of the case only in the syllabus. The syllabus in the present case makes no reference whatever to constitutional law, state or federal, but appears to be no more than a ruling in the area of state-evidence law. If the law of this case is to be so understood, it would a fortiori present no federal question.