Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> StandDown Texas Project

Criminal Law

: StandDown Texas Project

Maiming and the Death Penalty Case

By standdown

That's the title of a post at ACS blog on the Baze ruling.  It's written by Doug Kendall of the Community Rights Council.  LINKCould Alabama bring back the whipping post or brand the skin of a thief with a scarlet T, and not run afoul of the Eighth Amendment?s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment? Such a proposition may seem outlandish, but it is what opinions signed last week by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas in Baze v. Rees would seem to sanction. These opinions haven?t gotten much attention, but they illustrate everything that is wrong about originalism as it is practiced by Justices Scalia and Thomas. Too often, these justices manipulate text, speculate wildly about the intentions of the Framers, and end up far from the letter and spirit of the Constitution...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on April 25, 2008 (boomark / email).