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A state court deciding a federal constitutional issue about the presidential election ? " He gave the scholars caught up in the debate about his affection for legal minimalism a bit more to chew on : " If you're going up a list of what virtues are important when you're deciding a Supreme Court opinion , issuing an opinion , deciding a case , I have to say that I think boldness is going to be closer to the bottom and not the top . " Indeed , the Texas cases heard yesterday had all been decided more than 15 years ago , when Texas juries were asked to answer only yes or no to two questions when deciding whether to impose death . The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals , nevertheless , reaffirmed the death sentence , saying that if an error was made , it was harmless to the outcome of the jury 's decision.And so Smith v. Texas ( 05-11304 ) was back before the Supreme Court yesterday , with Smith 's advocates and others - - including four retired federal appeals court judges - - arguing that the state court ignored specific directions from the Supreme Court.As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put it , it was as though the state court were saying , " Thanks , thanks , that 's very interesting advice , " but we're deciding it on different grounds.But the state appeared to have strong supporters in Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Antonin Scalia.Scalia said the Texas court decided that , though the mitigating evidence should have been presented more straightforwardly , it was in the best position to decide that such evidence would not have affected the jury 's decision to sentence Smith to death . " The ruling Monday in Cunningham v. California could shave four years off the 16-year sentence of former Richmond , Calif ., police officer John Cunningham . " But it is very much an open question whether U.S. District Judge Simeon T. Lake III will let Skilling remain free pending an appeal , as defense lawyers recently requested , or whether he will order him into Bureau of Prisons custody immediately on Monday afternoon.The judge closed the book on the criminal case against Lay on Tuesday by tossing out his conviction on 10 charges because he died before he could appeal . " On Jan. 9 , Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Kenneth L. Fields agreed , quashing the warrant and ruling that it was " unconstitutional as applied under the Commerce Clause , Foreign Commerce Clause , Due Process Clause and the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution . But his case is not moot , because if he wins , he would be permitted to seek a cancellation of his deportation order and return legally to the United States.Lopez 's attorney , Robert A. Long Jr ., told the court that the administration 's position would undermine the uniformity of national immigration rules , because " what it is arguing is that states can banish noncitizens and can do so by enacting drug laws deciding to make a simple possession offense a felony . Then they measured the students ' attitudes toward politics , President Bush and the Democratic presidential nominee , Sen. John F. Kerry ( Mass. ) .