Jun 25 2008
I am Justice Kennedy, and my Word is LAW!!!!
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Wednesday outlawed executions of people convicted of raping a child.
In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in such cases violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
“The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. His four liberal colleagues joined him, while the four more conservative justices dissented.
There has not been an execution in the United States for a crime that did not also involve the death of the victim in 44 years.
Patrick Kennedy, 43, was sentenced to death for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter in Louisiana. He is one of two people in the United States, both in Louisiana, who have been condemned to death for a rape that was not also accompanied by a killing.
I think I’ve made my opposition to the death penalty pretty clear. However, the death penalty doesn’t bother me early as much as this block of five constitutionally illiterate Supreme Court justices who’ve apparently never heard of a little something called the 10th Amendment.
For those of you who need a refresher-
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
-The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
You may find it odd that I’m using a state political website to discuss a national issue, but this brainless decision has statewide implications as well. Once again, the imperial federal nanny-state has decided that all us little children dwelling in our respective home-states are too stupid to decide these things on our own. We need “smart people” like Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to decide these things for us.
I disagree with Louisiana’s death penalty law. But Louisiana, by powers granted to it through the 10th Amendment, has a right to that law. It’s up to the people of Louisiana to approve or repeal that law- not Anthony freakin’ Kennedy! If the people of North Carolina decide they want to repeal its death penalty, or make it more encompassing, that’s up to the people of this state, not 5 dudes in robes in Washington, DC!
Some of you may wonder how the 8th Amendment figures into this, as that was the justification these five judges used to repeal Louisiana’s law.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
-The 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Sorry, but a quick needle in the arm as punishment for ripping the soul out of some innocent young child, as is the case in Louisiana, is not cruel and unusual. If Louisiana had put child rapists to death using the iron maiden or drawing and quartering, then you’d have a case to make under the 8th Amendment. But I recently had to put my dog to sleep and it was almost the exact same thing as what Louisiana planned to do. Are you telling me that’s somehow cruel and unusual? C’mon!
This is yet more more right taken away from states (and by extension the people) by the imperial federal nanny-state. To make it worse- it wasn’t even legislative, it’s some damn judicial fiat decision that probably can never be overturned.
