Fresh from its decision invalidating the juvenile death penalty, the Supreme Court today expanded the scope of prisoner civil rights claims in one decision and made it harder for prosecutors to prove a defendant’s prior criminal record to trigger higher punishments in another decision. Finally, in a concurring opinion, Justice Thomas strongly suggested that the Court is ready to expand Sixth Amendment protections again by overruling a 1998 precedent that exempted prior past convictions from the Court’s new pro-defendant Sixth Amendment jurisprudence.
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