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Criminal Procedure
Crawford v. Washington
Decided: 2004
In brief
Strengthened the Confrontation Clause, restricting the use of out-of-court testimonial statements against defendants.
The Court's ruling in depth
Justice Scalia's majority opinion reoriented the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause around its original meaning: 'testimonial' statements by absent witnesses are inadmissible unless the defendant had a prior opportunity to cross-examine. Crawford abandoned the malleable 'reliability' test of Ohio v. Roberts and reshaped evidence law in criminal trials.