Breyer Still Perpetually Dissenting From Apprendi

January 14th, 2013

From oral argument today in Alleyne v. United States, Justice Breyer continued to perpetually dissent from Apprendi, a case that gutted the Sentencing Guidelines he helped write.

JUSTICE BREYER: I mean, in the one case you can say all that Apprendi did — it never should have been decided; I mean, some of us thought that — because in fact -­

JUSTICE SCALIA: I wonder who that could have been.

(Laughter.)

Get over it SGB.

I have proposed a rule against perpetual dissents. On the topic, Justice Kagan had interesting thoughts on the purposes behind dissenting.