CHICAGO — The U.S. Supreme Court hears a challenge Thursday to its long-standing rule that putting someone on trial more than once for the same crime does not violate the Constitution's protection against jeopardy.double
The Fifth Amendment says no person shall be "twice put in jeopardy of life or limb" for the same offense, and most Americans are familiar with the term double jeopardy. But for more than 160 years, the Supreme Court has ruled that being prosecuted once by a state and again in federal court, or the other way around, for the same crime doesn't violate the provision because the states and the federal government are "separate sovereigns."