SCOTUSblog 6/17/2019
GAMBLE v. UNITED STATES
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
No. 17–646. Argued December 6, 2018—
Decided June 17, 2019 Petitioner Gamble pleaded guilty to a charge of violating Alabama’s felon-in-possession-of-a-firearm statute. Federal prosecutors then indicted him for the same instance of possession under federal law. Gamble moved to dismiss, arguing that the federal indictment wasfor “the same offence†as the one at issue in his state conviction, thus exposing him to double jeopardy under the Fifth Amendment. The District Court denied this motion, invoking the dual-sovereignty doc¬trine, according to which two offenses “are not the ‘same offence’ †for double jeopardy purposes if “prosecuted by different sovereigns,†Heath v. Alabama, 474 U. S. 82, 92. Gamble pleaded guilty to thefederal offense but appealed on double jeopardy grounds. The Elev¬enth Circuit affirmed.
Held: This Court declines to overturn the longstanding dual-sovereignty doctrine. Pp. 3–31.(a) The dual-sovereignty doctrine is not an exception to the double jeopardy right but follows from the Fifth Amendment’s text. The Double Jeopardy Clause protects individuals from being “twice put injeopardy†“for the same offence.†As originally understood, an “of¬fence†is defined by a law, and each law is defined by a sovereign. Thus, where there are two sovereigns, there are two laws and two “of-fences.†Gamble attempts to show from the Clause’s drafting history that Congress must have intended to bar successive prosecutions re¬gardless of the sovereign bringing the charge. But even if conjecturesabout subjective goals were allowed to inform this Court’s reading of the text, the Government’s contrary arguments on that score would prevail. Pp. 3–5.
ALITO, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and THOMAS, BREYER, SOTOMAYOR, KAGAN, and KAVANAUGH, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., filed a concurring opinion. GINSBURG, J., and GORSUCH, J., filed dissenting opinions.
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