Davis v. Alaska

Justice White issued a dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Rehnquist. They declared that "there [was] no constitutional principle at stake here." Trial courts have the power to "control or limit cross-examination," and appellate courts may uphold controls. The Supreme Court "insists on second-guessing" the judgment of trial judges and appellate courts. White and Rehnquist believed that such "second-guessing" was unlikely to result in superior judgments, given "fact-bound cases and a cold record."