| Ashe v. Swenson | ||||||
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Supreme Court of the United States |
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| Argued November 13, 1969 Decided April 6, 1970 |
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| Full case name | Bob Fred Ashe, Petitioner v. Harold R. Swenson, Warden | |||||
| Citations | 397 U.S. 436 (more) 90 S.Ct. 1189 |
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| Holding | ||||||
| When an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future lawsuit. | ||||||
| Court membership | ||||||
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| Case opinions | ||||||
| Plurality | Stewart, joined by Douglas, White, Marshall | |||||
| Concurrence | Black | |||||
| Concurrence | Harlan | |||||
| Concurrence | Brennan, joined by Douglas, Marshall | |||||
| Dissent | Burger | |||||
Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436 (1970), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which held that "when an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future lawsuit." The Double Jeopardy Clause prevents a state from relitigating a question already decided in favor of a defendant at a previous trial. Here, the guarantee against double jeopardy enforceable through the Fourteenth Amendment provided that the government could not prosecute the criminal defendant in a second trial as it related to a different victim but the same robbery the criminal defendant was acquitted of in the first trial.