Cite as: 518 U. S. 37 (1996)
Opinion of Scalia, J.
duce relevant evidence is not absolute is not to say that the Due Process Clause places no limits upon restriction of that right. But it is to say that the defendant asserting such a limit must sustain the usual heavy burden that a due process claim entails:
"[P]reventing and dealing with crime is much more the business of the States than it is of the Federal Government, and . . . we should not lightly construe the Constitution so as to intrude upon the administration of justice by the individual States. Among other things, it is normally 'within the power of the State to regulate procedures under which its laws are carried out,' . . . and its decision in this regard is not subject to proscription under the Due Process Clause unless 'it offends some principle of justice so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental.' " Patterson v. New York, 432 U. S. 197, 201-202 (1977) (citations omitted).
See also Cooper v. Oklahoma, 517 U. S. 348, 355 (1996) (applying Patterson test); Marshall v. Lonberger, 459 U. S. 422, 438, n. 6 (1983) ("[T]he Due Process Clause does not permit the federal courts to engage in a finely tuned review of the wisdom of state evidentiary rules"). Respondent's task, then, is to establish that a defendant's right to have a jury consider evidence of his voluntary intoxication in determining whether he possesses the requisite mental state is a "fundamental principle of justice."
Our primary guide in determining whether the principle in question is fundamental is, of course, historical practice.
a difference. So long as the category of excluded evidence is selected on a basis that has good and traditional policy support, it ought to be valid.
We do not entirely understand Justice O'Connor's argument that the vice of § 45-2-203 is that it excludes evidence "essential to the accused's defense," post, at 64; see also post, at 72. Evidence of intoxication is not always "essential," any more than hearsay evidence is always "nonessential."
43
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007