The Confrontation clause of the U.S. Constitution gives criminal defendants the right “to be confronted with the witnesses against him”. The interpretation of this right at the U.S. Supreme Court has changed significantly over the past 20 years beginning with Crawford v. Washington. This term, the Supreme Court once again addressed this issue in a case coming from our very own Arizona courts.

This episode reviews several of the cases that brought us to Smith v. Arizona, what the decision means for current criminal practitioners, and tries to predict where we go from here. Conversations like this one are necessary as we decide what the fallout from this decision will be in ongoing cases.

Oral Argument from the U.S. Supreme Court in Smith v. Arizona.

The case deals with the ability of the government to call an expert who relies on another experts findings to testify at trial. Typically this has come up in the field of scientific testing such as drug, DNA, and blood testing. The court had considered several cases previously on whether this practice violates the confrontation clause of the 6th Amendment to the US Constitution.

The case was argued on January 10, 2024.

Arizona was recently the flashpoint for one of the most intensely debated issues in US politics today: abortion. After a ruling from the Arizona Supreme Court, people from across the country voiced their opinions on whether abortion in Arizona should be more freely accessible or more restricted. What was almost totally ignored, however, were the two laws that the Supreme Court was considering and what they were actually deciding.

In this episode, we briefly review the history of abortion in Arizona, and we take a deeper look at the argument at the Supreme Court, what was the question that they were asked to consider, what their ruling said, and then a look forward to see where abortion laws are going in our state.

Understanding this issue might not change our minds about abortion, but it can help us understand more about criminal law in Arizona and statutory construction which is key to truly understanding criminal law and policy here in State 48.