Ramos v. Louisiana

CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATION

Evangelisto Ramos argues that the Sixth Amendment’s Jury Trial Clause requires a unanimous jury verdict for a criminal conviction. Ramos asserts that the historical origins of the Jury Trial Clause mandate unanimity. Indeed, Ramos notes that English common-law required unanimous jury verdicts since at least the Fifteenth Century. He explains that this legal tradition retained its prominence in early America as colonists formulated their own legal systems. Ramos contends that the Framers intended to constitutionalize pre-existing rights when they drafted the Bill of Rights. Accordingly, Ramos posits that the Sixth Amendment was intended to codify common-law unanimity into the jury-trial protection. He argues that, although the Sixth Amendment does not explicitly mention unanimity, the Court assumes that when the Constitution contains common-law rights it also intended to incorporate any historical aspects and limitations attached to those rights. Therefore, Ramos contends that the right to a jury trial conveys more than its literal reading—it implies how the jury must issue its verdict, which throughout history has been unanimously. Ramos contends that this understanding is bolstered by the fact that the federal government and almost every state have required unanimity since the Founding, and that this near-uniform national judgment should guide the Court’s interpretation of the Jury Trial Clause.

Further, Ramos asserts that over a century of court cases reflect the historical understanding that the Sixth Amendment preserved the common-law unanimity requirement. This understanding, Ramos maintains, is supported by numerous jurists and scholars who over the past two centuries have described the Jury Trial Clause as requiring unanimity. For example, Ramos quotes Justice Story, who stated that the jury-trial right required that the jury “unanimously concur in the guilt of the accused before a legal conviction may be had.” In fact, Ramos points out, a majority of the justices in Apodaca, despite disagreeing on other grounds, espoused this view when they agreed that the Sixth Amendment requires unanimity.

Respondent Louisiana counters that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial does not incorporate every feature of the common-law jury. Louisiana argues that in Williams v. Florida, the Court rejected the assumption that “if a given feature existed in a jury at common law in 1789, then it was necessarily preserved in the Constitution.” Indeed, Louisiana notes, other aspects of the common-law jury have since been discarded, such as limiting the jury panel to male landowners and requiring that the trial be held near the location where the crime occurred. Accordingly, Louisiana cautions that the Court should not imply a unanimity requirement from the Jury Trial Clause. Instead, Louisiana contends that the Court should begin its analysis by reading the Constitution’s plain language. Louisiana explains that the Sixth Amendment’s text does not explicitly mention unanimity, nor does any other clause in the Constitution. Further, Louisiana highlights other constitutional clauses that explicitly incorporate common-law rules as evidence that the Framers consciously omitted the unanimity requirement from the Sixth Amendment. Finally, Louisiana points out that although the original draft of the Sixth Amendment included the unanimity requirement, the Framers decided to remove it from the final version, which underscores that they did not intend to include every common-law feature of the right to trial by jury.

Additionally, Louisiana rebuts Ramos’ claim that the Sixth Amendment has been historically understood to include a unanimity requirement. Pointing to variations in state constitutions—where some states codified the unanimity requirement at the Founding while others did not—Louisiana suggests that the Founders would have inserted unanimity into the Jury Trial Clause if they believed it was needed, suggesting that a lack of historical consensus about unanimity existed. Further, Louisiana argues that Ramos misconstrues historical understandings of unanimity—including by attributing to Justice Story a quote that was posthumously added to his writing. Ultimately, Louisiana asserts, there is insufficient historical support to justify reading a unanimity requirement into the Sixth Amendment.

THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT AND INCORPORATION

Ramos argues that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Sixth Amendment’s unanimity requirement against the states. According to Ramos, since 1968 in Duncan v. Louisiana, the Court has consistently applied the Sixth Amendment’s Jury Trial Clause to the states. Further, Ramos notes that when a Bill of Rights protection is incorporated against the states, that protection must be enforced against the states in the same manner in which it is against the federal government—a rule that the Court reaffirmed just last term in Timbs v. Indiana. Because the Jury Trial Clause—which requires unanimity—is incorporated against the states, Ramos contends that incorporating the Jury Trial Clause against Louisiana necessarily incorporates unanimity as a jury-trial right.

Alternatively, Ramos argues that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees the right to unanimity as a fundamental, “freestanding” due process right for state-criminal defendants. Ramos explains that the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to adhere to “time-honored” procedural rules, such as the “beyond-a-reasonable-doubt” rule, because such rules reflect longstanding societal mores. Ramos maintains that, given its tradition, the unanimity requirement is one such fundamental procedural right. Moreover, Ramos contends that unanimity is also protected by the Privileges and Immunities Clause, which guarantees the fundamental rights of individual citizens.

In rejecting incorporation, Louisiana reiterates its primary argument: the Sixth Amendment does not include the right to a unanimous jury verdict. Therefore, Louisiana continues, there is no existing fundamental unanimity right to incorporate against the states under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Responding to Ramos’s alternative argument, Louisiana urges that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause is not a “repository for an implied right to unanimity.” Louisiana maintains that the Court has never held that jury unanimity is a fundamental due process right, whether under the Fifth or Fourteenth Amendment. Indeed, Louisiana notes that the States are capable of independently deciding whether to impose a unanimity requirement, and that nearly every state has now elected to do so. Louisiana cautions that to incorporate a unanimity right “would short-circuit what looks to be a prompt and considered legislative response” to a procedural question.Further, regarding Ramos’ Privileges and Immunities Clause argument, Louisiana contends that the Clause only encompasses recognized constitutional rights. Therefore, Louisiana posits that because the right to a unanimous jury verdict is not enumerated in the Constitution, it is not protected by the Privileges and Immunities Clause.

STARE DECISIS

Ramos argues that the Court should overrule Apodaca, where Justice Powell’s single vote decided that state jury verdicts need not be unanimous. Ramos emphasizes the fractured nature of the Apodaca decision by pointing out that most of the Justices disagreed with Justice Powell’s rationale in that case and penned their own opinions. He also asserts that Justice Powell’s rationale—that the Sixth Amendment binds the states to a lesser extent than it binds the federal government—clashes with the Court’s decisions that fully incorporate other constitutional amendments. Accordingly, Ramos contends that stare decisis—the adherence to the Court’s prior decisions—should not prevent the Court from overruling Apodaca in this case. Ramos acknowledges that states may have relied on Apodaca and similar cases when fashioning their jury systems but argues that stare decisis should not work as a barrier to implementing the Bill of Rights’ full protection for all citizens.

Louisiana responds that the Court explicitly rejected a unanimity requirement for the states in Apodaca. Louisiana argues that, in past cases, the Court only mentioned unanimity in dicta—the non-binding and unessential portion of a court’s ruling—before Apodaca ruled on the issue. According to Louisiana, therefore, stare decisis dictates that Apodaca should guide the Court’s decision in this case. Louisiana argues that rejecting settled law “demands special justification,” even in cases that address constitutional rights. Ultimately, Louisiana asserts, there is no special justification for overruling Apodaca in this case. Louisiana also notes that, along with Oregon, it has relied on the rule from Apodaca to fashion its own jury system—a reliance interest protected by the principle of stare decisis. Further, Louisiana points that overturning Apodaca would undermine subsequent cases that have built on the Apodaca framework, such as Williams, which allows verdicts by fewer than twelve jurors.