What Book Are You Reading at the Moment?

[JohnDonne]

Didn't Scalia argue that we should be able to execute retarded people, because there's no proof that being retarded makes one more predisposed to commit the crimes one would be executed for? I just always thought that was a dickish opinion. Let's execute children then while we're at it.

[Fife]

Didn't Scalia argue that we should be able to execute retarded people, because there's no proof that being retarded makes one more predisposed to commit the crimes one would be executed for?

Uh, no.

[heydaralon]

Didn't Scalia argue that we should be able to execute retarded people, because there's no proof that being retarded makes one more predisposed to commit the crimes one would be executed for? I just always thought that was a dickish opinion. Let's execute children then while we're at it.

Don't think I've forgotten about your complicity in the execution of those crabs either. Scalia ruling or no, you are an accesory after the fact in their torture and murder.

[de officiis]

Didn't Scalia argue that we should be able to execute retarded people, because there's no proof that being retarded makes one more predisposed to commit the crimes one would be executed for? I just always thought that was a dickish opinion. Let's execute children then while we're at it.

Not aware of that, but he did author an opinion about the constitutionality under the Eighth Amendment of the imposition of the death penalty on minors.

Stanford v. Kentucky

Syllabus

Petitioner in No. 87-5765 was approximately 17 years and 4 months old at the time he committed murder in Kentucky. A juvenile court, after conducting hearings, transferred him for trial as an adult under a state statute permitting such action as to offenders who are either charged with a Class A felony or capital crime or who are over the age of 16 and charged with a felony. Petitioner was convicted and sentenced to death. The State Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence, rejecting petitioner's contention that he had a constitutional right to treatment in the juvenile justice system, and declaring that his age and the possibility that he might be rehabilitated were mitigating factors properly left to the jury. Petitioner in No. 87-6026, who was approximately 16 years and 6 months old when he committed murder in Missouri, was certified for trial as an adult under a state statute permitting such action against individuals between 14 and 17 years old who have committed felonies. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death. The State Supreme Court affirmed, rejecting his contention that the sentence violated the Eighth Amendment.

Held: The judgments are affirmed.

[Fife]

Didn't Scalia argue that we should be able to execute retarded people, because there's no proof that being retarded makes one more predisposed to commit the crimes one would be executed for? I just always thought that was a dickish opinion. Let's execute children then while we're at it.

Not aware of that, but he did author an opinion about the constitutionality under the Eighth Amendment of the imposition of the death penalty on minors.

Stanford v. Kentucky

Syllabus

Petitioner in No. 87-5765 was approximately 17 years and 4 months old at the time he committed murder in Kentucky. A juvenile court, after conducting hearings, transferred him for trial as an adult under a state statute permitting such action as to offenders who are either charged with a Class A felony or capital crime or who are over the age of 16 and charged with a felony. Petitioner was convicted and sentenced to death. The State Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence, rejecting petitioner's contention that he had a constitutional right to treatment in the juvenile justice system, and declaring that his age and the possibility that he might be rehabilitated were mitigating factors properly left to the jury. Petitioner in No. 87-6026, who was approximately 16 years and 6 months old when he committed murder in Missouri, was certified for trial as an adult under a state statute permitting such action against individuals between 14 and 17 years old who have committed felonies. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death. The State Supreme Court affirmed, rejecting his contention that the sentence violated the Eighth Amendment.

Held: The judgments are affirmed.

Perhaps, but I can only think that he must have seen some dribbling on BuzzFeed or PuffHo about Atkins v. Virginia (2002).

Scalia's dissent about Black-Dress Activism in general, and the 8th A. specifically, is just another tour de force among the mountain of those he built.

https://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/des ... name_toc_4

Beyond the empty talk of a "national consensus," the Court gives us a brief glimpse of what really underlies today's decision: pretension to a power confined neither by the moral sentiments originally enshrined in the Eighth Amendment (its original meaning) nor even by the current moral sentiments of the American people. " '[T]he Constitution,' " the Court says, "contemplates that in the end our own judgment will be brought to bear on the question of the acceptability of the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment .' " Ante, at 312 (quoting Coker, 433 U. S., at 597 ) (emphasis added). (The unexpressed reason for this unexpressed "contemplation" of the Constitution is presumably that really good lawyers have moral sentiments superior to those of the common herd, whether in 1791 or today.) The arrogance of this assumption of power takes one's breath away. And it explains, of course, why the Court can be so cavalier about the evidence of consensus. It is just a game, after all. "'in the end,'" Thompson, supra, at 823 , n. 8 (plurality opinion (quoting Coker, supra, at 597 (plurality opinion))), it is the feelings and intuition of a majority of the Justices that count-"the perceptions of decency, or of penology, or of [***371] mercy, entertained ... by a majority of the small and [*349] unrepresentative segment of our society that sits on this Court." Thompson, supra, at 873 (SCALIA, J., dissenting).

It is just a game, after all.

[C-Mag]

I gotta get back to reading, I've been off books for 6 months.

[heydaralon]

I gotta get back to reading, I've been off books for 6 months.

I sometimes go through dry spells. I found the trick to get back in is to find something I am very interested in, that is easy to read. Usually, memoirs and autobiographies are perfect for this. Once I get started again, I go on a reading bender.


A great autobiography that I cannot recommend more strongly is Will by G Gordon Liddy. This guy can write, and even if you don't like his politics, the man has had a wild life. As silly as this sounds, I felt inspired by his book. He went to prison, and did not give a fuck. He thrived there too. C-Mag, Check out Will. You will like it, I guarantee it.

https://www.amazon.com/Will-Autobiograp ... 0312924127

[de officiis]

I gotta get back to reading, I've been off books for 6 months.

I sometimes go through dry spells. I found the trick to get back in is to find something I am very interested in, that is easy to read. Usually, memoirs and autobiographies are perfect for this. Once I get started again, I go on a reading bender.


A great autobiography that I cannot recommend more strongly is Will by G Gordon Liddy. This guy can write, and even if you don't like his politics, the man has had a wild life. As silly as this sounds, I felt inspired by his book. He went to prison, and did not give a fuck. He thrived there too. C-Mag, Check out Will. You will like it, I guarantee it.

https://www.amazon.com/Will-Autobiograp ... 0312924127

He used to have his own radio show. He always spoke his mind and it was very entertaining.

[Fife]

Man I miss having the G-Man on in the office every day. Good times.

Virile, vigorous, potent, fecund . . . IT IS I, THE G-MAN. Good to go and ready to launch!

[C-Mag]

Man I miss having the G-Man on in the office every day. Good times.

Virile, vigorous, potent, fecund . . . IT IS I, THE G-MAN. Good to go and ready to launch!

You can still get some of his stuff
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-g- ... oplay=true

I miss the G man