More often, the cases were relatively low-profile — lower court decisions refusing, for example, to apply civil rights protections that are already established. And here’s the thing: In many of those cases, the court ultimately reversed by an overwhelming vote. The lower court decisions were indefensible. But for the court to reverse a lower court decision refusing to honor a civil liberty, the case first has to be put on its docket. Seven years before, the Supreme Court had chastised the Louisiana courts for allowing exactly this kind of unconstitutional gamesmanship.

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Persons: Hodges, David Brown, Brown’s, Brown, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan Locations: . Louisiana, Louisiana