## Facts

- Philip Cardinale, Jr. murdered a woman near New Orleans and fled Louisiana.
- In Tucson, Arizona, he surrendered to police after being warned he need not speak, that statements could be used against him, and that he had a right to contact an attorney.
- At the stationhouse, Cardinale gave a detailed confession.
- At his Louisiana murder trial, the confession was admitted in full under La. Rev. Stat. § 15:450, which required confessions to be admitted “in their entirety.”
- Cardinale did not dispute voluntariness or general admissibility; he objected only to admitting portions he claimed were irrelevant and prejudicial.
- Cardinale was convicted of murder and sentenced to death; the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed.
- In the U.S. Supreme Court, Cardinale argued that § 15:450 was unconstitutional because it compelled admission of irrelevant and prejudicial portions of a confession, but the record showed this federal claim had not been raised or decided in the Louisiana courts.

## Issues

1. Whether the Supreme Court may decide a federal constitutional challenge to a state evidentiary statute when the federal issue was not raised, preserved, or passed upon in the state courts whose judgment is under review.

## Decision

- The Court dismissed the writ of certiorari for want of jurisdiction.
- The Court held it lacked authority under 28 U.S.C. § 1257 to decide a federal constitutional issue raised for the first time in the Supreme Court.
- The Court did not reach the merits of Cardinale’s constitutional attack on La. Rev. Stat. § 15:450.

## Legal Principles

- Supreme Court review of state-court judgments under 28 U.S.C. § 1257 is unavailable unless the federal question was raised in, and decided by, the state courts.
- If the record does not show that a federal claim was presented to and ruled on by the state courts, the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction fails.
- The Court will not decide federal constitutional issues asserted for the first time on review of a state-court decision.

## Conclusion

Because Cardinale’s constitutional challenge to Louisiana’s “entirety” confession rule was neither preserved nor passed upon in the Louisiana courts, the Supreme Court dismissed certiorari for lack of jurisdiction and left the state judgment undisturbed without addressing the statute’s constitutionality.


Cardinale v. Louisiana, 394 U.S. 437 (1969)