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U.S. V. Yeager And Consistency With Double Jeopardy, Arthur Lang

Arthur Lang

The Court refined the Double Jeopardy Clause into a coherent and consistent group of doctrines over the last half century. Res judicata, the finality of judgement, historically has prevented re-litigation of issues previously determined. As J. Holmes said, the safeguards of the person cannot be less than those that protect a liability in debt. This has lead to a a surge of cases involving collateral estoppel that have correcting older rulings seemingly inconsistent with the spirit of the Double Jeopardy Clause.