The last time someone was executed in this country for something other than murder was 1964. Very few states even have tried to put such a statute on the books. For a long, long time this part of the 8th amendment has been interpreted (in part) in light of what the American consensus is. This decision precisely follows that precedent, which is exactly what one wants a Supreme Court to do.
Bolded the important part, and no, this isn't what I want scotus to do. If we are going to judge things by consensus, then what is the point of reducing things to a writing. When you 'interpret by consensus" then everything is fair game.
You can't say its perfectly ok to use societal norms for the 8th amendment, but not for the 1st, or the 2nd or whatever part of the constitution we are talking about. Either the constitution is taken at face value, or its not. If its not, then this is the least of our problems.
Nope. The Supreme Court has according to the Constitution the final say on cases arising under the Constitution. Nothing Congress can do about that -- without amending the Constitution.
And congress has the authority to expand or restrict the appellate jurisdiction of the supreme court. The only thing they cant change is the original jurisidiction of scotus which is set forth in the constitution.
Not to go against the blood lust, but I might remind folks that there is a substantial history of false recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse.
This might caution folks against blindly calling for the death penalty.
Actually, I'm okay with this decision. As others have said, there is a possibility that permitting the death penalty would result in more dead children, not less.
Which are both valid points for the wisdom of such a punishment but have NOTHING to do with the constitutional argument. Again, it is not the job, or the purpose of the court to judge whether laws a good or bad, wise or not. It is the job of the courts to judge constitutionality. Period.
If a state thinks the harm outweighs the benefits of killing child rapists, then thats perfectly fine with me. That is the states business however, and not that of the federal government.