jeopardy
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 317 U.S. 537 - United States Marcus v. Hess · 1943Most cited · 2,450 citing opinions
double jeopardy clause
the line between civil, remedial actions brought primarily to protect the government from financial loss and actions intended to authorize criminal punishment to vindicate public justice. Only the latter subject the defendant to 'jeopardy' within the constitutional meaning.
How the Supreme Court has restated “jeopardy”
Each Supreme Court definition of “jeopardy,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “jeopardy”
Court decisions citing the 4 opinions that defined “jeopardy” — 3,718 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 4 definitions, chronological · 1907–1970
- ORIGINAL
It is an established rule that one is not put in jeopardy if the indictment under which he is tried is so radically defective that it would not support a judgment of conviction, and that a judgment thereon would be arrested on motion.
defective indictment
Before a person can be said to have been put in jeopardy of life or limb the court in which he was acquitted or convicted must have had jurisdiction to try him for the offense charged.
jurisdiction prerequisite
literal' jeopardy is particularly difficult to understand, given the Senator's own unambiguous explanation that as author of the bill, what he meant was 'constitutional' jeopardy