Redstate

Posted at 11:31am on Jun. 25, 2008 5-4 Supreme Court Bars Death Penalty For Child Rape

Raping A Child Not Really As Bad As Democracy

By Dan McLaughlin

The Supreme Court today, in Kennedy v. Louisiana, found that the Eighth Amendment bars the death sentence of a man who brutally raped his 8-year-old stepdaughter, causing traumatic physical injury (decency doesn't permit quoting here the Court's discussion of the facts on p. 2 of its opinion), to say nothing of the emotional trauma. The decision was 5-4, with Justice Kennedy writing the opinion joined by the Court's liberal bloc. The decision is significant in three major main ways:

1. It essentially bars the death penalty in all cases that do not result in the death of the victim, with the exception of "offenses against the State."

2. It explicitly confirms that the Court's reliance on an 'evolving national consensus' against the death penalty in specified circumstances is truly a one-way street; the Court frankly admits that unless there is strong evidence of a national consensus favoring the death penalty for a particular crime at a particular time, the Court will permanently bar every state from using the democratic process to impose such a penalty at any time in the future.

3. It rejects the notion that state legislatures are competent to come up with any sort of safeguards, a conclusion much in line with the Court's recent view that Congress is incapable of determining procedures for the handling of alleged enemy combatants. The assertion of judicial supremacy inherent in this conclusion is staggering.

Read On...

Posted in Justice Kennedy | Law — Comments (93)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:14am on Jun. 12, 2008 BREAKING: 5-4 Supreme Court Extends Habeas Corpus To Foreign Nationals Detained At Guantanamo

Court Overturns Congress' Military Commissions Act

By Dan McLaughlin

Initial report from SCOTUSBlog here. 5-4 decision written by Justice Kennedy, with the Chief Justice and Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito dissenting.

UPDATES: The opinions, all 134 pages, are here. More below the fold.

Posted in Guantanamo | Justice Kennedy | Supreme Court | War — Comments (119)/ Email this page » / Read More »