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Palko v. Connecticut - Significance, Supreme Court Announces A "fundamental Fairness" Test For Constitutional Limits On State Power

Appellant

Frank Palko

Appellee

State of Connecticut

Appellant's Claim

That when the state tried him a second time for the same offense, it violated the constitutional prohibition on double jeopardy.

Chief Lawyers for Appellant

David Goldstein, George A. Saden

Chief Lawyer for Appellee

William H. Comley

Justices for the Court

Hugo Lafayette Black, Louis D. Brandeis, Benjamin N. Cardozo (writing for the Court), Charles Evans Hughes, James Clark McReynolds, Owen Josephus Roberts, Harlan Fiske Stone, George Sutherland

Justices Dissenting

Pierce Butler

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

6 December 1937

Decision

The Supreme Court upheld the Connecticut law that permitted the state to appeal judgments, and retry defendants, in certain criminal cases.

Related Cases

  • Hurtado v. California, 110 U.S. 516 (1884).
  • Twining v. State of New Jersey, 211 U.S. 78 (1908).
  • Adamson v. California, 332 U.S. 46 (1947).
  • Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784 (1969).

Additional Topics

Palko v. Connecticut - Further Readings

Palko v. Connecticut - Significance

Palko was not the first test of the applicability of the Bill of Rights at the state level, but it marked the introduction of a new approach to the problem. Frank Palko was indicted for first degree murder in Fairfield County, Connecticut. After a jury trial, he was found guilty of murder in the second degree, a lesser crime, and sentenced to life in prison. A state law, however, permitted Connect…

Palko v. Connecticut - Supreme Court Announces A "fundamental Fairness" Test For Constitutional Limits On State Power

The due process argument Palko made really dates from two dissenting opinions written much earlier by Justice John Marshall Harlan I: Hurtado v. California (1884) and Twining v. State of New Jersey (1908). Although it was decidedly a minority view at the time, in both of these cases, Harlan advanced the theory that after ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, any act that violated the B…

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