The U.S. Supreme Court on May 17 reiterated that the Constitution requires unanimous jury verdicts for state criminal trials, but it doesn’t apply retroactively, which denies relief to thousands of inmates who were found guilty via divided juries. The court ruled 6-3 (pdf) to reaffirm last year’s decision that the Constitution requires a unanimous conviction. However, this time around, the Supreme Court argued in its majority opinion that it didn’t necessitate reopening closed cases. Justice Brett Kavanaugh provided the majority opinion and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett. The three members of the liberal wing of the court—Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor—dissented. Kavanaugh wrote that the court’s “well-settled retroactivity doctrine” led to the conclusion that the decision doesn’t apply retroactively, and it “tracks the Court’s many longstanding precedents on retroactivity.” During arguments, several justices noted the …