The Massacre (or Slaughter) of the Innocents is a story recounted in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew (2:16–18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem.[2] Modern scholarship finds no evidence that it happened outside the passages in Matthew, though it is congruous with Herod's character.[3][4]
So was that Herod exercising his official duty?
Think of this as a good news bad news situation.
Good news: the Constitution is not a vehicle to please Justice Sonia Sotomayor (even though you agree with her)
Bad news: the Constitution is not a vehicle to please your common sense or your morality.
In other words the Constitution is not a place from which either you or Justice Sonia Sotomayor can rationalize backwards to make yourselves happy.
It is a Constitution we are expounding, not a soap opera, but a rulebook to be applied uniformly and consistently, even if doing so makes you feel indignant.
