Did anyone else catch the Scalia exchange on C-SPAN this morning ...about Lethal Injections ?

[in_cog_ni_to]

C-SPAN played this Scalia question today. My blood ran cold. Compassionate Conservative certainly was a "Marketing Gimmick" (quote from Jonah Goldberg).


January 7, 2008, 3:55 pm
Don’t Be Cruel, Justice Scalia

By The Editorial Board

The Supreme Court is getting a well-earned reputation for cruelty.

In recent years, the court’s conservatives — with a different line-up of Justices — upheld a 50 year prison sentence for a man who shoplifted a few children’s videotapes.

Last year, the court ruled that an inmate who filed an appeal by the deadline set by a federal district court judge had lost his right to appeal because the federal judge had made a mistake by a few days in setting the deadline.

Today, Justice Antonin Scalia struck another blow for cruelty. In Supreme Court arguments over executions using lethal injection, he took a swipe at those who argue that states need to avoid inflicting unncessary pain.

Where, he asked, is it written that states must choose the “least painful method” of executing someone? “Is that somewhere in the Constitution?”

The court was considering “an execution,” he emphasized, “not surgery.”

Does the Constitution prohibit utterly needless cruelty toward inmates? We think it does, and we suggest that Justice Scalia check out the Eighth Amendment — which bars “cruel and unusual punishment” — and the court’s affirmation that the amendment enshrines a “principle of civilized treatment.”

http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/dont-be-cruel-justice-scalia/

[annabanana]

1. Scalia

Living down to the worst stereotypes. . .

[elehhhhna]

7. Scalia: the personification of "Cruel and Unusual"

[Ilsa]

2. Amazing how a human-demon hybrid could be allowed on the SCOTUS. nt

[Bitwit1234]

4. Just remember a republican picked him and remember the old

saying "you scratch my back I'll scratch yours"...look at him and cheney. Scalia I surmise is making a heck of a lot of dough out of his stint in the supreme.....if it wasn't for the fact that we have four honest and one almost honest on the court, instead of supreme we should call it the low down court.

[rodeodance]

3. jim lehrer news hour did a nice piece on this exchange also

[DCKit]

5. So now there's a Constitutional provision for execution????

Scalia is a winger and a danger to the Constitution. His narrow interpretation of the law, in every case, is tainted by his right-wing, neocon, fascist prejudice.

People like Justice Scalia have a world-view that is set in stone and they will ALWAYS interpret the law to fit what they already believe, not the reality.

[BlueIris]

6. Ew.

[givemebackmycountry]

8. And all of the Republican Presidential candidates are saying what?

That they will appoint Supreme Court Justices in the mold of who?

SCALIA.

Yet another reason why we MUST defeat these bastards.

[annabanana]

9. A good thing to keep in mind during this Election Season!

This is why I will support the Democratic nominee..

[rucky]

10. Such a good Catholic he is.

:eyes:

[ladjf]

11. What an amazingly stupid, cruel and narrow view! How did such

a person rise to such a high level? The President's administration, the Senate, the House, the CIA, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the Supreme Court, I can't think of any part of our government that can be trusted and respected.

[in_cog_ni_to]

14. We can thank Ronald Reagan. He appointed the asshole. n/t

[flashl]

12. If vets will not use the procedure on animals, why is it a questions? n/t

[UTUSN]

13. K&R #3, for, what to expect from this a-hole:

[HughMoran]

15. Scalia is a shit-stain on the American quilt

I will celebrate the day he kicks the bucket. :mad: