[So Cal Rocket]

What year is the Trop case that he is referring to? Anyone know? What was the precedent set?

In 1958, the Supreme Court had decided in 
Trop v. Dulles (356 U.S. 86), that the Eighth Amendment contained an "evolving standard of decency that marked the progress of a maturing society." Although Trop was not a death penalty case, abolitionists applied the Court's logic to executions and maintained that the United States had, in fact, progressed to a point that its "standard of decency" should no longer tolerate the death penalty.

[lentulusgracchus]

[You, quoting Trop vs. Dulles] "evolving standard of decency...."

Well, there it is. The liberals' beloved "living" (changing when we say so) Constitution. Always mutable, Squealer doesn't need his paint pot for this one. We'll just leave the words as they are, and change all the meanings instead.

Perfect. Classic liberal legal positivism.