The Supreme Court issued two opinions today (which is odd for a Friday). In one the Court unanimously held that the Foreign Intelligence Services Act does not displace the state secrets privilege. In the other it reinstated the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, by a vote of 6-3.
The Court's lineup in the Tsarnaev case was not unusual -- the conservatives were in the majority and the liberals were in dissent. What was interesting, however, was the concurrence by Justice Barrett, joined by Justice Gorsuch, suggesting a broader potential problem with the circuit court's decision to invalidate Tsarnaev's capital sentence: Circuit courts lack supervisory power over district courts to dictate the latter's procedures.
From Justice Barrett's concurrence:
