Posted on 10/01/2008 1:27:49 PM PDT by mojito
Less than a week before its October term is set to begin, the US Supreme Court became a spectacle of sound and fury on Wednesday over a landmark decision handed down three months ago declaring that the death penalty for child rapists is cruel and unusual punishment.
At issue was whether the high court would revisit the landmark 5-to-4 decision after revelations last summer that contradicted the majority justices' conclusion that a "national consensus" had emerged against the death penalty for the rape of a child.
The June 25 decision said only six states had laws authorizing capital punishment for child rape. But unknown to the justices at the time they wrote the opinion, Congress in 2006 had amended the nation's military law to authorize capital punishment in such cases for child rapists. In 2007, President Bush issued an executive order concurring with the congressional action.
These actions were not discussed in the case briefs to the high court or at oral argument.
In light of the new information, the US Solicitor General's Office and the state of Louisiana asked the court to rehear the case and take a fresh look at whether a "national consensus" had really formed against the practice.
The answer came on Wednesday. The author of the opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy, and the four other members of the majority stood behind the landmark decision, agreeing only to amend the opinion with a footnote mentioning the congressional action.
"The court has determined that rehearing is not warranted," Justice Kennedy said in a three-page statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Don’t worry — after four, or probably eight years, of Barack Hussein Obama, the High Court will be strengthened by his conservative successor. Of course, that successor will have to overcome the anti-American tenor of the Court, made possible by President Obama’s appointments, who will of course support the suppression of criticism or campaign advertising by his opponents.
It does not play a part in Supreme Court interpretation of our Constitution.
It obviously does play a leading part. Granted, it shouldn't...
Don’t be livid - get more states to pass good laws.
Confirmed by Republican Senators...
Best to recall historical American jurisprudence...FROM 1881.
The following is a near verbatim sentence imposed upon a defendant convicted of murder in the Federal District Court of the Territory of New Mexico many years ago by a United States Judge, sitting at Taos in an adobe stable used as a temporary courtroom (as the story goes).
‘Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, in a few short weeks, it will be spring. The snows of winter will flee away, the ice will vanish, and the annual miracle of the years will awaken and come to pass, but you won’t be there. ‘The rivulet will run its course to the sea, the timid desert flowers will put forth their tender shoots, the glorious valleys of this imperial domain will blossom as the rose. Still, you won’t be there to see. ‘From every treetop some wild woods songster will carol his mating song, butterflies will sport in the sunshine, the busy bee will hum happy as it pursues its accustomed vocation. The gentle breeze will tease the tassels of the wild grasses, and all nature, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, will be glad, but you. ‘You won’t be there to enjoy it because I command the sheriff, or some officers of the country, to lead you out to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a knotting bough of a sturdy oak, and let you hang until you are dead. ‘And then, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, I further command that such officer or officers retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body until nothing shall remain but the bare bleached bones of a cold-blooded, copper-colored, blood-thirsty, throat-cutting, chili-eating, sheep-herding, murdering son-of-a-bitch.’
~~~o~~~ United States of America v. Gonzales (1881) United States District Court, New Mexico Territory
Eh? You think that the raped child should be executed?
Now, “Slow Joe” Biden is not alone with his FDR/television gaffe!
“Americans” who haven't held closely to the Constitution or the ideals that set America apart from most of the world — will accomplish the destruction of this Republic that our most dedicated enemies have been incapable of accomplishing without their help.
The election of Obama, and the continued Democrat majority in Congress will complete the destruction.
Of this - I am certain.
Well... I guess I didn’t think that one through...
Not all the way. But your heart is in the right place.
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