Benton v. Maryland

*801Mr. Justice Harlan, whom Mr. Justice Stewart joins,

dissenting.

One of the bedrock rules that has governed, and should continue to govern, the adjudicative processes of this Court is that the decision of constitutional questions in the disposition of cases should be avoided whenever fairly possible. Today the Court turns its back on that sound principle by refusing, for the flimsiest of reasons, to apply the “concurrent sentence doctrine” so as not to be required to decide the far-reaching question whether the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment is “incorporated” into the Due Process…