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On this day, June 26, 2000, the Supreme Court handed down the opinion in Apprendi v. New Jersey.
Last edited Thu Jun 26, 2025, 10:35 AM - Edit history (1)
Hat tip, this comment this morning (June 26, 2025) during the SCOTUSblog running commentary on the opinions to be released in a few minutes:
Lisa Gochman
9:35 AM
Greetings from Asbury Park! On this date 25 years ago, Justice John Paul Stevens issued the landmark sentencing opinion in Apprendi v. New Jersey.
9:35 AM
Greetings from Asbury Park! On this date 25 years ago, Justice John Paul Stevens issued the landmark sentencing opinion in Apprendi v. New Jersey.
Apprendi v. New Jersey
Argued: March 28, 2000
Decided: June 26, 2000
Full case name: Charles C. Apprendi, Jr. v. New Jersey
Holding:
Other than the fact of a prior conviction, every fact necessary to authorize a defendant's punishment must be either admitted by the defendant or found by a jury on proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The New Jersey Hate Crime Statute was an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial because it allowed a judge to increase a criminal sentence beyond its statutory maximum based on his own finding of an aggravating factor by a preponderance of the evidence. New Jersey Supreme Court reversed and remanded.
Court membership:
Chief Justice
William Rehnquist
Associate Justices
John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy
David Souter · Clarence Thomas
Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision with regard to aggravating factors in crimes. The Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, prohibited judges from enhancing criminal sentences beyond statutory maxima based on facts other than those decided by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. The decision has been a cornerstone in the modern resurgence in jury trial rights. As Justice Scalia noted in his concurring opinion, the jury-trial right "has never been efficient; but it has always been free."
The Apprendi decision was subsequently cited as precedent by the court in its consideration of Ring v. Arizona (2002), which struck down Arizona's judge-only method of imposing the death penalty, and also in Blakely v. Washington (2004), which ruled that mandatory state sentencing guidelines are the statutory maximum for purposes of applying the Apprendi rule.
{snip}
Argued: March 28, 2000
Decided: June 26, 2000
Full case name: Charles C. Apprendi, Jr. v. New Jersey
Holding:
Other than the fact of a prior conviction, every fact necessary to authorize a defendant's punishment must be either admitted by the defendant or found by a jury on proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The New Jersey Hate Crime Statute was an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial because it allowed a judge to increase a criminal sentence beyond its statutory maximum based on his own finding of an aggravating factor by a preponderance of the evidence. New Jersey Supreme Court reversed and remanded.
Court membership:
Chief Justice
William Rehnquist
Associate Justices
John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy
David Souter · Clarence Thomas
Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision with regard to aggravating factors in crimes. The Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, prohibited judges from enhancing criminal sentences beyond statutory maxima based on facts other than those decided by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. The decision has been a cornerstone in the modern resurgence in jury trial rights. As Justice Scalia noted in his concurring opinion, the jury-trial right "has never been efficient; but it has always been free."
The Apprendi decision was subsequently cited as precedent by the court in its consideration of Ring v. Arizona (2002), which struck down Arizona's judge-only method of imposing the death penalty, and also in Blakely v. Washington (2004), which ruled that mandatory state sentencing guidelines are the statutory maximum for purposes of applying the Apprendi rule.
{snip}