Meanwhile, in the Supreme Court Certiorari Petition Pile – Update for November 20, 2025

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

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The Supreme Court has relisted a case that asks whether sentencing decisions based on uncharged, acquitted, or dismissed conduct violate the 5^th and 6^th Amendments.

A “relist” means that the Court could not decide whether to hear the case at its initial conference and has relisted it to consider it again. Cases rarely get picked for review without being relisted one or more times.

In 2023, the Supreme Court relisted a group of about 10 cases asking the same question before denying review to all of them at once at the end of the term in July.

In other news, the Supreme Court will consider Melynda Vincent’s petition for certiorari that asks whether 18 USC § 922(g)(1)’s felon-in-possession provision violates the 2^nd Amendment by prohibiting her from acquiring a gun. Vincent was convicted of bank fraud 15 years ago for writing some bad checks while in the throes of drug addiction. Since then, she cleaned up, graduated from a drug treatment program, earned an undergraduate degree and two graduate degrees, and founded the Utah Harm Reduction Coalition – a nonprofit organization for drug treatment and criminal-justice reform – and a mental health counseling service, Life Changes Counseling.

Bartunek v. United States, Case No. 25-5720 (petition for certiorari pending)

Vincent v. United States, Case No. 24-1155 (petition for certiorari pending)

~ Thomas L. Root