Cruel founding fathers
This 8th amendment twist is a bit unusual Sun Apr 7, 2013...by Howie Carr
Add the name of Michelle Lynne (ne Robert) Kosilek to the list of modern phenomena the Founding Fathers would definitely not appreciate being blamed for.
Little did they know what havoc they would someday wreak by adding the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution to prohibit “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Now comes Kosilek, a convicted wife murderer doing life without parole. He/she is claiming that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to deny him/her a sex-change operation — excuse me, “gender-reassignment surgery.”
Not to get too graphic, but Kosilek is begging for elective amputation of a body part. Yes, that body part. Remember, the Eighth Amendment prohibits “inflicting” cruel and unusual punishment. An infliction is exactly the right word for what he/she is petitioning the court for.
As a lawyer for the state said last week, “This expands the Eighth Amendment to new heights.”
New heights? Surely he meant to say, new depths.
And it gets even more bizarre. A federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan has signed off on this infliction, and ordered payment of $724,000 to Kosilek’s pro-bono lawyers.
Odder still, the legal team desperately fighting to stop this latest slap in the face to common sense and the taxpayers works for a moonbat Democrat governor who began his own legal career filing frivolous lawsuits against prison officials in Maryland.
But it appears that Michelle Lynne Kosilek is a bridge too far even for ultra-Politically Correct Deval Patrick.
You may recall that back in the ’90s, wife-strangler Kosilek was “diagnosed” with a trendy new malady called gender identity disorder. Knowing full well the type of bleeding-heart crackpots who sit on the bench in Massachusetts, the Department of Correction signed off on psychotherapy, female hormone treatments, laser hair removal, etc.
Just not the ultimate cruel and unusual punishment. So Kosilek sued and prevailed in federal district court. Now the state is appealing to the First Circuit.
By the way, despite Kosilek’s alleged anguish and suffering, he/she has not tried to commit suicide.
Here is what Judge Mark Wolf wrote when ordering the sex-change operation, and if Ronald Reagan could read what his appointee wrote, James Madison wouldn’t be the only one turning over in his grave.
“There is no less intrusive means to correct the prolonged violation of Kosilek’s Eighth Amendment right to adequate medical care.”
After Kosilek gets the sex change, what’s to stop her (what other word can you use at that point?) from turning around and re-suing the DOC for violating her Eighth Amendment rights by allowing the operation? After all, didn’t the ACLU et al. go bonkers in Kansas when the legislature merely tried to impose chemical castration on convicted sex-offenders?
To top it all off, Judge Wolf issued a not-so-veiled threat to the state and Deval:
“Resistance at all costs could end up costing the taxpayers quite a lot. The defendant, up to the governor, should consider whether it’s in the public’s interest to do that.”
In other words, resistance is futile. And behind Kosilek a queue of other DOC inmates are reportedly lining up for their own one-way “gender reassignments” to MCI-Framingham. Thanks a lot, President Madison.