A federal court may not toss a conviction because of an error at trial simply based on its own assessment of legal precedent, but rather must also consider a state's own evaluation of the mistake through the lens of a federal law, the U.S. Supreme Court held Thursday in a case involving a Michigan man who was shackled during a murder trial.
Over a dissent from two justices Monday, the Supreme Court declined to take up the case of a utility worker who chose church over work on Good Friday and was promptly suspended.
A parishioner makes an offering after outdoor mass at St. Agnes, a Catholic church in San Diego, California, during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Courthouse News photo/Barbara Leonard)
WASHINGTON (CN) Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito balked Monday at their colleagues’ refusal to wade into a religious-discrimination case that could fortify the right to religious exercise.
“The only mistake here is of the court’s own making and it is past time for the court to correct it,” Gorsuch wrote this morning, saying the court should have granted a writ of certiorari to Christian electrician Jason Small.