Munson P. Hunter, III, Petitioner v. United States

The case asked whether a defendant who waived most appeal rights in a plea deal could still challenge a supervised-release condition requiring prescribed mental-health medication. The Supreme Court said appeal waivers are not absolute and can be refused when enforcing them would create a miscarriage of justice, then sent Hunter's case back for that test to be applied.

The Court ruled for Hunter on the legal standard and returned the case to the lower courts, but the prompt does not provide the vote count or opinion lineup.

Majority

Kagan

Roberts

Alito

Sotomayor

Gorsuch

Kavanaugh

Barrett

Jackson

Dissent

Thomas

This gives lower courts room to hear some appeals even after a plea agreement waiver, especially when a sentence condition seems unusually unfair. For example, a defendant challenging a serious supervised-release rule may still get review if enforcing the waiver would be unjust.

The Fifth Circuit must reconsider Hunter's appeal using the miscarriage-of-justice standard the Supreme Court announced. Lower courts will also have to decide, case by case, when enforcing an appeal waiver would be too unfair.

The dispute was whether Hunter's plea-deal waiver blocked his challenge to a supervised-release condition requiring prescribed mental-health medication. The Court said such waivers are not absolute.

Defendants who signed plea deals with appeal waivers may benefit when a sentence condition appears especially unfair. Judges and prosecutors must also account for this new limit.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to the Fifth Circuit. That court must decide whether enforcing Hunter's waiver here would create a miscarriage of justice.