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Unusual Nonesense

By standdown

That's the title of an article by Benjamin Wittes at the New Republic.  LINK  Here's an extended excerpt:The simple fact is that more than two centuries after the Eighth Amendment's adoption into the Constitution, the justices still can't agree about the most basic aspects of its meaning: Does it prohibit a static list of brutalities feared by the Founders or is it flexible--a prohibition against whatever punishments a given age regards as beyond the pale? If the latter, how should the court assess what a given age regards as out of bounds? Should it rely on acts of state legislatures and, if so, how many states' outlawing a practice should suffice to make it off limits constitutionally to the others? Should the court look to foreign law? Can it consult public opinion polls? And what happens, as with executing child rapists, when states want to open the door for a practice that has been decades in disuse...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on April 28, 2008 (boomark / email).