Court Opinion

ID: 9532451
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:21:26.978705+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:46.003518
License: Public Domain

Moylan, J.,

concurring:

Since I agree with the majority opinion that any error (even assuming there to be error) would be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, I concur in the judgment of the Court affirming this conviction. For my part, however, I would not reach out gratuitously to reject the interpretation placed upon the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment by a four-justice plurality of the Supreme Court of the United States. On the issue of what is Sixth Amendment error in a situation very like the case before us, the eight Justices voting split four-to-four. Although we have the undoubted right under such circumstances to be persuaded or to be unpersuaded, I would think it advisable under circumstances such as these, where the decision is so easily deferrable, to wait until the full complement of Supreme Court Justices has spoken. I am doubly disposed to waiting in that the missing voice is that of Justice Powell, who more frequently than not in terms of constitutional-criminal philosophy, is lined up with the Justices in the plurality camp. I would not, therefore, rush to judgment, particularly when, in my own view, we are rushing in the wrong direction.