Free Republic

Warren Messner was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his part in the torture-murder of a Florida homeless man. Messner and three other teens said they beat the man to death over a three day period because they were bored. Now Messner claims he is dying of boredom in jail. He has been in juvenile detention for eight months. “I’m locked up pretty much around the clock,” Messner complained. “I can’t go anywhere or do anything. It’s really boring here.” Messner’s mother Lori says the lack of freedom is “killing my boy.” “He’s used to doing whatever he wants,”...

  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."...