WASHINGTON —Plea-bargain negotiations between criminals and prosecutors will now come under constitutional scrutiny because a divided Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that convictions can be overturned if defense lawyers don’t adequately assist clients in deciding whether to accept such offers.
The court’s decision could affect nearly every criminal case in the United States, where more than nine in 10 convictions come by guilty pleas.
In a rare move justices use to underscore their objections, Justice Antonin Scalia read his dissent aloud from the bench. He said the court’s decision “upends decades of our cases … and opens a whole new boutique of constitutional jurisprudence” — plea-bargaining law — even though there is no legal right to be offered a plea bargain.
The two majority opinions, both written by Justice Anthony Kennedy,
mean that criminal defense lawyers are now required to inform their clients of plea-bargain offers and must give their clients good advice on whether to accept a plea bargain at all stages of prosecution.
Also Wednesday, the court ruled unanimously that property owners have a right to prompt review by a judge of an important tool used by the Environmental Protection Agency to address water pollution.
The court sided with an Idaho couple who object to an EPA order that blocked construction of their new home near a scenic lake and threatened fines of more than $30,000 a day.
