Palko v. Connecticut

Palko v. Connecticut
Argued November 12, 1937
Decided December 6, 1937
Full case namePalko v. State of Connecticut
Citations302 U.S. 319 (more)
58 S. Ct. 149; 82 L. Ed. 288; 1937 U.S. LEXIS 549
Case history
PriorState v. Palko, 122 Conn. 529, 191 A. 320 (1937); probable jurisdiction noted, 58 S. Ct. 20 (1937).
Holding
The Fifth Amendment right to protection against double jeopardy is not a fundamental right incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment to the individual states.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Charles E. Hughes
Associate Justices
James C. McReynolds · Louis Brandeis
George Sutherland · Pierce Butler
Harlan F. Stone · Owen Roberts
Benjamin N. Cardozo · Hugo Black
Case opinions
MajorityCardozo, joined by McReynolds, Brandeis, Sutherland, Stone, Roberts, Black
DissentButler
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. V, U.S. Const. amend. XIV
Overruled by
Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784 (1969)

Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319 (1937), was a United States Supreme Court case concerning the incorporation of the Fifth Amendment protection against double jeopardy.

Justice Benjamin Cardozo, writing for the majority, explained that some Constitutional protections that would apply against the federal government would not be incorporated to apply against the states unless the guarantee was "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty". Incorporation of the Bill of Rights was selective, not a general rule, and in this case the Court declined to incorporate the protection from double jeopardy against the states, even though the protection would most certainly have been upheld against the federal government.