Episode Details

The US Supreme Court just ruled in favor of a criminal defendant in a case that was rather interesting. It presented a simple question: Are prosecutors allowed to force you to sign away your right to appeal, and then slap you with a—potentially—unconstitutional punishment?

Basically, can plea deals be formulated such that you get hit with an unconstitutional penalty, but then you also can’t appeal that penalty?

And the answer is: No. They cannot. Although, as always with these Supreme Court rulings, there is a lot of nuance, so let’s go through the details together.