Legal News

Scalia: Smacking Someone in the Face Could Be Justified

By Dan Slater

The Law Blog has never heard of a BBC radio show called “Law in Action,” but we’re determined to start tuning in — particularly after reading about the program’s interview yesterday with our very own Justice Scalia.

As is often the case, we think it best to let Scalia speak for himself:

On physical interrogation:

Smacking someone in the face could be justified. You can’t come in smugly and with great self satisfaction and say ‘Oh it’s torture, and therefore it’s no good.’

On assuming that the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment applies to torture:

Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to determine where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up Los Angeles is prohibited in the Constitution? . . . . It would be absurd to say you couldn’t do that. And once you acknowledge that, we’re into a different game. How close does the threat have to be? And how severe can the infliction of pain be?

On Europe’s view of capital punishment:

If you took a public opinion poll, if all of Europe had representative democracies that really worked, most of Europe would probably have the death penalty today. There are arguments for it and against it. But to get self-righteous about the thing as Europeans tend to do about the American death penalty is really quite ridiculous.

Hey, LB’ers, the floor is yours. Tell us what you think.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 13, 2008 (boomark / email).