Civil Rights Prosecutions Safer After Double Jeopardy Ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court bolstered federal civil rights and hate crimes prosecutions in a June 17 decision in a closely-watched double-jeopardy case.

In a case also noted for its potential impact on presidential pardons, the justices upheld the longstanding “dual sovereignty” rule allowing prosecutions for crimes on both the state and federal level.

The justices ruled against Terance Gamble, who claimed that his gun prosecutions on both levels violated the Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy bar.

But such double prosecutions have been condoned for years under the longstanding sovereignty rule, which the Supreme Court declined to overturn in Gamble v. United ...