Court Opinion

ID: 9424230
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:10:52.817415+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:48.993814
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Black,
concurring.
I join in the opinion of the Court although I must reject any implication in that opinion that the so-called due process test of “fundamental fairness” might have been appropriate as a constitutional standard at some point in the past or might have a continuing relevancy today in some areas of constitutional law. In my view it is a wholly fallacious idea that a judge’s sense of what is fundamentally “fair” or “unfair” should ever serve as a substitute for the explicit, written provisions of our Bill of Rights. One of these provisions is the Fifth Amendment’s prohibition against putting a man twice in jeopardy. On several occasions I have stated my view that the Double Jeopardy Clause bars a State or the Federal Government or the two together from subjecting a defendant to the hazards of trial and possible conviction more than once for the same alleged offense. Bartkus v. Illinois, 359 U. S. 121, 150 (1959) (dissenting opinion); Abbate v. United States, 359 U. S. 187, 201 (1959) (dissenting opinion); Ciucci v. Illinois, 356 U. S. *448571, 575 (1958) (dissenting statement); Green v. United States, 355 U. S. 184 (1957). The opinion of the Court in the case today amply demonstrates that the doctrine of collateral estoppel is a basic and essential part of the Constitution’s prohibition against double jeopardy. Accordingly, for the reasons stated in the Court’s opinion I fully agree that petitioner’s conviction must be reversed.