United States v. Glenn Marcus — Stevens, J., Dissenting

Summary

Justice Stevens dissented from the Court's remand and would have affirmed the judgment ordering a retrial. He reasoned that the failure to instruct the jury that pre-enactment conduct was not criminal created a substantial risk that the jury relied on noncriminal conduct and distorted its assessment of the charged conduct. He also criticized the Court's increasingly elaborate framework for plain-error review as inconsistent with the straightforward text of Rule 52(b).