Supreme Court rejects challenge to convictions under "racist Jim Crow" jury laws

The Supreme Court said Monday that an earlier ruling that declared felony convictions by non-unanimous juries were unconstitutional and "a pillar" of the Jim Crow era cannot be applied retroactively.

The 6-3 decision in the case, known as Edwards v. Vannoy, leaves in limbo hundreds of people incarcerated in Louisiana and Oregon by non-unanimous jury verdicts — 80% of whom in Louisiana are black, and most of whom are serving life sentences. In an April 2020 opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that non-unanimous jury laws in Louisiana were designed to render Black juror service "meaningless." Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the laws originated as "a pillar of a comprehensive and brutal program of racist Jim Crow measures against African Americans." However, writing for the majority on Monday, Kavanaugh said that the 2020 decision in the earlier case, Ramos v. Louisiana, did not constitute a "watershed" ruling that can be applied retroactively.