Associated Press Would Really Like Liberal Justice Stevens to Retire

One would think that the Associated Press would have more respect for a Supreme Court Justice that rules their way 99% of the time. Well, maybe while Bush is in office, but as soon as Obama enters the White House, Justice John Paul Stevens is suddenly way too old and he has to retire!

Justice Stevens shows no signs he is ready to quit By MARK SHERMAN

Filed under: Barack Obama / The Messiah, U.S. Supreme Court , Associated Press, Barack Obama / The Messiah, convenience, John Paul Stevens, nomination, U.S. Supreme Court

Justice Anthony Kennedy: “La Constitution, c’est Moi!”

In a 2005 interview, Kennedy said of the court, “You know, in any given year, we may make more important decisions than the legislative branch does — precluding foreign affairs, perhaps.” (He was wise to include the “perhaps,” in light of the recent Guantanamo Bay decision.) He went on to note how judges need “an understanding that you have an opportunity to shape the destiny of the country.”

So much for the country’s destiny being shaped by a free people acting through their representative institutions, within certain constraints it enshrines in the Constitution.

— Rich Lowry

Filed under: U.S. Supreme Court , Justice Anthony Kennedy, U.S. Supreme Court

The Supreme Court Ignores the Constitution — AGAIN

Once again, Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, Stevens, Breyer, and Souter, make things up as they see fit, ignore the U.S. Constitution, and with incredible arrogance, pretend that they’re legislators.

The Louisiana legislature decided that when a child is raped, the rapist deserves the penalty of death. In the most malleable and unprincipled reasoning the Court could use, five Justices decided that such a savage should not be put to death. It would have been nice if the Court examined this case by first analyzing the Eighth Amendment, but what fun would THAT be? Instead, Kennedy resorts to sentiment that would make Hallmark proud: “evolving standards of decency.” Apparently permitted a savage rapist to live is “evolving” and decent.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is utterly out of control.

“The Court today holds that the Eighth Amendment categorically prohibits the imposition of the death penalty for the crime of raping a child. This is so, according to the Court, no matter how young the child, no matter how many times the child is raped, no matter how many children the perpetrator rapes, no matter how sadistic the crime, no matter how much physical or psychological trauma is inflicted, and no matter how heinous the perpetrator’s prior criminal record may be. [...] [M]ost of the Court’s discussion is not pertinent to the Eighth Amendment question at hand. And once all of the Court’s irrelevant arguments are put aside, it is apparent that the Court has provided no coherent explanation for today’s decision.” Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 1, 15 (2008 ) (Alito, J. dissenting).

Filed under: U.S. Supreme Court , cruel and unusual punishment, Eighth Amendment, Kennedy v. Louisiana, rape, U.S. Supreme Court