A REDUNDANT PROSECUTION IN MINNESOTA:  The federal prosecution of Derek Chauvin was likely undertaken as a hedge against the possibility that he would be acquitted in the state prosecution.  That obviously isn’t what happened.  But the prosecution apparently will proceed.

What’s jarring to a lot of Americans is that it’s possible to be acquitted of a crime in state court, but still prosecuted in federal court (and vice versa).  They think the Constitution protects them against double jeopardy.  It doesn’t (or at least that’s how it’s been interpreted for a long time). Back in the day that there weren’t many federal crimes, that may have been tolerable.  But these days there’s almost always a federal crime that can be charged, so double jeopardy is almost always possible.

I’ve argued in the past that in the specific and narrow context of the federal hate crimes act that this is unconstitutional. Some federal appellate judges have appeared to be sympathetic to the argument, but it will take the Supreme Court to do anything about it.