Posted on 03/01/2005 10:40:45 AM PST by OXENinFLA
Justice Scalia, with whom The Chief Justice and Justice Thomas join, dissenting.
In urging approval of a constitution that gave life-tenured judges the power to nullify laws enacted by the people's representatives, Alexander Hamilton assured the citizens of New York that there was little risk in this, since "[t]he judiciary ... ha[s] neither FORCE nor WILL but merely judgment." The Federalist No. 78, p. 465 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961). But Hamilton had in mind a traditional judiciary, "bound down by strict rules and precedents which serve to define and point out their duty in every particular case that comes before them." Id., at 471. Bound down, indeed. What a mockery today's opinion makes of Hamilton's expectation, announcing the Court's conclusion that the meaning of our Constitution has changed over the past 15 years--not, mind you, that this Court's decision 15 years ago was wrong, but that the Constitution has changed. The Court reaches this implausible result by purporting to advert, not to the original meaning of the Eighth Amendment, but to "the evolving standards of decency," ante, at 6 (internal quotation marks omitted), of our national society. It then finds, on the flimsiest of grounds, that a national consensus which could not be perceived in our people's laws barely 15 years ago now solidly exists. Worse still, the Court says in so many words that what our people's laws say about the issue does not, in the last analysis, matter: "[I]n the end our own judgment will be brought to bear on the question of the acceptability of the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment." Ante, at 9 (internal quotation marks omitted). The Court thus proclaims itself sole arbiter of our Nation's moral standards--and in the course of discharging that awesome responsibility purports to take guidance from the views of foreign courts and legislatures. Because I do not believe that the meaning of our Eighth Amendment, any more than the meaning of other provisions of our Constitution, should be determined by the subjective views of five Members of this Court and like-minded foreigners, I dissent.
Wow. Legal smackdown, there.
}:-)4
All but two of the current sitting Supreme Court justices were appointed by Republicans.
Thanks
We need to remove the liberals.
Haven't read the article in it's entirety but this quote says it all for me - And not just about this particular decision.
My man Nino.....
We need 8 more Justice Scalia's
At first I was agreeing that maybe kids who committed murder before 18 shouldn't be executed, just kept in prison for the rest of their lives. But then I was reminded Malvo was 17 year old DC serial sniper/killer.
I just wish they would come up with an age where US citizens are legal adults. 18 is old enough to sign a contract or get married to join military. 16 is old enought to drive. But you have to be 21 to buy a beer. I wish they would choose one age, say 19 or 20, and that is the age when everyone becomes a legal adult.
When my youngest had to go to court he was 18. I couldn't speak to the judge because Mike was not a minor, yet he was in court because he WAS a minor. He was with some other college kids who had been drinking a beer. One of them was headed to Iraq the next day, in the military, and they went out and had a beer and played pool. They got caught because it was November and they had the top down on the convertible, not because they were driving bad. It had been 5 1/2 hours since they had their beer.
I felt like Faye Dunnaway in "China Town". She's my sister, my daughter, my sister, my daughter.... as she was slapped over and over by Jack Nicholson.
My son was an adult, not an adult, an adult, not an adult...
Etc.
I blamed myself more than him for being with those kids. I was the one who suggested that he find a ride to and from Lubbock for Thanksgiving, to save the price of an airline ticket. As it was, the ticket for MIC was four times more than a flight would have cost. And he is a good kid and not one who goes out running around and drinking. He is a quiet kid, well behaved, well most of the time.
When some 16 year old kid pulls out a gun, a knife, a coathanger and pliars, and your wife, daughter or mom are involved, you'll get religion on this subject.
Yep. Souter, Breyer, and Kennedy all were GOP appointees, and all voted to impose their moral viewpoint and obey the power of foreign popular opinion... over the deliberative acts of elected state legislatures. (Joining them were the Clinton appointees, Ginsburg and Stevens IIRC)
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