Jacob Sullum Jun 22, 2022 The federal government prosecuted Merle Denezpi twice for the same crime. It also punished him twice: the first time with 140 days in a federal detention center, the second time with a prison sentence more than 70 times as long. Although that may seem like an obvious violation of the Fifth Amendment's ban on double jeopardy, the Supreme Court last week ruled that it wasn't. As the six justices in the majority saw it, that puzzling conclusion was the logical result of the Court's counterintuitive precedents on this subject.
The Fifth Amendment says no person shall "be subject for the same
offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." But under the
Court's longstanding "dual sovereignty" doctrine, an offense is not "the
same" when it is criminalized by two different governments..........Justice Neil Gorsuch strenuously dissented in that case. "A free society
does not allow its government to try the same individual for the same
crime until it's happy with the result," he wrote. "Unfortunately, the
Court today endorses a colossal exception to this ancient rule against
double jeopardy.".........To Read More.....
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