[8] Gamble's petition to the Supreme Court noted that in 2016, Supreme Court Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas had argued for a review of the separate sovereigns doctrine in a concurring opinion in Puerto Rico v. Sanchez Valle;[9] Ginsburg's opinion, joined by Thomas, stated that "The matter warrants attention in a future case in which a defendant faces successive prosecutions by parts of the whole USA.

[4] The American Civil Liberties Union, the Cato Institute, and the Constitutional Accountability Center filed a joint amicus brief on the case, arguing that there is no textual basis for the doctrine in the Double Jeopardy Clause, which states that "[n]o person shall be ... subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb", and that the rising amount of federal criminal laws and state-federal task forces means there will be more dual state-federal prosecution.

A spokesperson for him denied any relation of the brief to the investigation, saying that Hatch wants the doctrine to be overturned due to "the rapid expansion of both the scope and substance of modern federal criminal law".

[10] Oral arguments were originally scheduled to be heard on December 5, 2018, but were postponed due to a day of mourning for George H. W. Bush, who died on November 30, 2018.

Alito highlighted that it is written into law that a person may be tried for the same offense in both national and international courts, so the exception for double jeopardy between state and federal trials already exists.

Quoting directly from an actual usage of all caps in The Federalist Papers, Ginsburg wrote: "Different parts of the 'WHOLE' United States should not be positioned to prosecute a defendant a second time for the same offense".

[16] Gorsuch wrote: "When governments may unleash all their might in multiple prosecutions against an individual, exhausting themselves only when those who hold the reins of power are content with the result, it is the poor and the weak, and the unpopular and controversial, who suffer first—and there is nothing to stop them from being the last".