The Supreme Court is on the brink of a conservative revolution, poised to roll back decades of progressive precedent and thrust itself into the 2020 presidential race. But as the term began on Monday, a majority of justices seemed poised to trigger an earthquake that could unsettle hundreds or even thousands of criminal convictions. The court appears prepared to rule that the Constitution require juries to reach unanimous verdicts in both state and federal court, abolishing a legal aberration that subordinates the power of minority jurors.

Louisiana and Oregon have long been the only two states that allow nonunanimous verdicts in felony trials. That means juries can reach a verdict by a vote of 10–2 or 11–1. In 2018, Louisiana voters eliminated nonunanimous verdicts moving forward, but individuals charged with a crime that occurred before 2019 can still be convicted by a divided jury. Oregon’s law remains in place despite a recent stab at reform.

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Jeffrey Fisher, who argued for Ramos, plainly had a majority of justices in his corner from the start. Only Justice Samuel Alito was vocally dismissive of his argument, complaining about stare decisis (or respect for precedent). “Last term, the majority was lectured pretty sternly in a couple of dissents about the importance of stare decisis and about the impropriety of overruling established rules,” Alito said, citing the liberal justices’ dissents as the conservative majority slashed away precedent. Why, he wondered, should the court knock down Apodaca when it has served the basis for thousands of convictions? Don’t states have an interest in relying upon it?

Fisher had a good answer: Apodaca rests on a single idiosyncratic concurrence, which rests on a theory of incorporation that the court has since discredited. This argument is so strong that Louisiana Solicitor General Elizabeth Murrill did not even contest it. Instead, she argued that nonunanimous verdicts should be allowed in both state and federal courts. Put differently, the court should overturn more than a century of precedent, dislodging the unanimity rule from the Sixth Amendment.