Halliday v. United States (394 U.S. 831)/Dissent Black

by Hugo Black

United States Supreme Court

394 U.S. 831

Halliday  v.  United States (394 U.S. 831)

 Argued: May 5, 1969. --- Decided: June 16, 1969

Mr. Justice BLACK, with whom Mr. Justice DOUGLAS joins, dissenting.

I do not understand why there should be any discussion of the retroactivity of McCarthy v. United States, 394 U.S. 459, 89 S.Ct. 1166, 22 L.Ed.2d 418, a decision of this Court this Term interpreting a Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure. If the rule's relevant portions were in full force and effect when petitioner's guilty plea was entered in 1954, then it should of course be enforced in this case; if not, the McCarthy decision simply has no application here at all. For this reason and for all others set out in my dissenting opinion in Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 640, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 1743, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965), I would reverse the judgment below and order that petitioner's guilty plea be vacated so that he may have an opportunity to plead again.

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