Seems to have held up in the Utah court of appeals:
“Instead, during trial, the prosecution offered testimony and argument about his refusal. The defense argued that this violated the defendant’s Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, which also prevents the state from commenting on his silence. The court of appeals agreed, and now the state has appealed to the Utah Supreme Court.”
Fair point. It has held up in a single state court of appeals, so I was definitely wrong about this being without substance on appeal, but the jurisdiction of the ruling is quite small and I am unaware of anything federal backing the claims being made.
I’m not sure this is correct. A state court of appeals made this ruling, but it wasn’t a matter of state law (the “law” is the US constitution and the precedent was a US Supreme Court case); I believe the “jurisdiction” (e.g. where this ruling establishes precedent as far as how the 5th amendment applies in this situation) is the entire US (unless a higher court rules otherwise).
Not a lawyer but I think a future defense attorney with a client in a similar situation in a another state would reference this ruling and try to convince a judge that their client’s situation was similar enough to invoke that ruling, whereas a prosecutor would be making the case that it was different enough that it did not apply (vs saying that it was a different jurisdiction and did not apply).
“Instead, during trial, the prosecution offered testimony and argument about his refusal. The defense argued that this violated the defendant’s Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, which also prevents the state from commenting on his silence. The court of appeals agreed, and now the state has appealed to the Utah Supreme Court.”
In that text, “prevents the state from commenting on his silence” is a link to https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/380/609/