CONTINUANCE OF MOTION DEADLINES DOES NOT IMPACT A DEFENDANT'S SPEEDY TRIAL RIGHT

In Bloate v. United States, the Court considered whether a Defendant's Motion to continue the deadline by which motions were to be filed also acted as a waiver of Defendant's speedy trial rights. The Government argued that the additional time gained to file Motions should have been excluded under the speedy trial act (which entitles a Defendant to trial within 70 days of indictment). The Court held that simply continuing a deadline, without continuing the trial itself, does not count as a Defendant waiver of the right and that the additional time gained to file motions would not be excluded from the 70-day calculation.

It is surprising that two Justices (Alito and Breyer) dissented in this case as the analysis is straight forward; a Motion to continue a deadline is not a Motion to continue trial so there is no reason that the time should have been excluded when calculating how long it took for the case to reach trial.