Court grants criminal case on right to appeal

The Supreme Court on Friday afternoon added another case to its oral argument docket for the 2025-26 term. The justices agreed to take up the case of Munson Hunter, a Texas man who pleaded guilty in 2024 to aiding and abetting wire fraud. The court will weigh in on issues relating to Hunter’s waiver, as part of his plea agreement, of his right to appeal.

At Hunter’s sentencing in 2024, a federal trial judge imposed, despite Hunter’s earlier objection, a condition that required him to take any mental health medications prescribed by his doctors. The judge also told Hunter that “You have a right to appeal.”

Hunter was sentenced to 51 months in prison, along with three years of supervised release; he was also required to pay more than $235,000 in restitution.

Hunter appealed the mandatory-medication condition to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which – pointing to his appeal waiver – dismissed his appeal.

Hunter then came to the Supreme Court in April of this year, asking the justices to review his case. He argued that the 5th Circuit’s dismissal of his case was at odds with rulings by other federal courts of appeals, which allow “defendants to raise a broad range of constitutional challenges to their sentences.” Moreover, he added, if his case had been in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit instead of the 5th Circuit, he would have been allowed to appeal because the trial judge told him that he had a right to appeal and the government did not object.

After considering the case at their Sept. 29 conference and again on Friday, the justices agreed to review Hunter’s case. They will likely hear arguments sometime early next year, with a decision to follow by summer.

More orders from the justices’ Oct. 10 conference are expected on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 9:30 a.m. EDT.