he Court issued its decision on May 17, 2021. In a 6–3 ruling, the Court affirmed the lower court's ruling. The majority opinion was written by Justice
Brett Kavanaugh and was joined by the conservative side of the court, finding that the
Ramos decision did not apply retroactively. The majority's decision determined that the requirement for a unanimous jury vote was not sufficiently "watershed" as to require
Ramos to be made retroactive. Kavanaugh wrote "Continuing to articulate a theoretical exception that never actually applies in practice offers false hope to defendants, distorts the law, misleads judges, and wastes the resources of defense counsel, prosecutors, and courts."
[7] Kavanaugh wrote that the affected states were free to consider renewed trials for those affected cases on their own.
[7] In the opinion, Kavanaugh also suggested that it would be impossible for any future change in criminal court proceedings would ever reach the "watershed" factor defined in the
Teague ruling, nor had any court change prior to
Edwards had met the standard set in
Teague for the "watershed" requirement. As such, Kavanaugh considered that that portion of the
Teague ruling was overturned.
[8]
Justice
Elena Kagan wrote the dissenting opinion joined by Justices
Stephen Breyer and
Sonia Sotomayor. Kagan wrote that "those convicted under rules found not to produce fair and reliable verdicts will be left without recourse in federal courts."
