State tax evasion and federal tax evasion are separate crimes. You can evade federal income taxes without evading state and vice versa. Prosecutions for tax evasion are unlikely to be affected by a decision on this case.

Trump administration officials prosecuted by Mueller are unlikely to be affected by this issue to any great extent - lying to the FBI and "conspiracy to defraud the United States" aren't state crimes, for example.

Also it's likely that Ruth Bader Ginsberg is one of those pushing to eliminate the separate sovereigns double jeopardy exception as in the past she has suggested the court revisit this issue.

The separate sovereigns exception to double jeopardy is tied-up in federalism. It seems amazing to me that the GOP is abandoning the sovereignty of the states.

Last edited Wed Sep 26, 2018, 10:41 AM - Edit history (1)

This case was brought to the Court and accepted in significant part because of an opinion authored by Justice Ginsburg (and joined by Justice Thomas) suggesting that the time had come to revisit the dual sovereignty exception to the double jeopardy rule. To quote from the opinion written by Justice Ginsburg:

"The double jeopardy proscription is intended to shield individuals from the harassment of multiple prosecutions for the same misconduct. Green v. United States, 355 U. S. 184, 187 (1957). Current “separate sovereigns” doctrine hardly serves that objective. States and Nation are “kindred systems,” yet “parts of ONE WHOLE.” The Federalist No. 82, p. 245 (J. Hopkins ed., 2d ed. 1802) (reprint 2008). Within that whole is it not “an affront to human dignity,” Abbate v. United States, 359 U. S. 187, 203 (1959) (Black, J., dissenting), “inconsistent with the spirit of [our] Bill of Rights,” Developments in the Law— Criminal Conspiracy, 72 Harv. L. Rev. 920, 968 (1959), to try or punish a person twice for the same offense?"