Quote:
Originally Posted by SeattleUte
This opinion is a perfect example of what I was saying yesterday about Scalia:
"Justice Alito wrote a dissent lamenting that the majority had ruled out executing someone for raping a child '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.'”
This is Alito writing but it's an illustration of the point: his opinion is really not based on "strict construction." He likes the death penalty. He can't believe there aren't rapists out there who would deserve the death penalty their crime was so horrible. Often the conservative justices are just as big or bigger offenders at imposing their own moral order as the liberals. "Strict construction" is often the pretext or the cover.
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I totally agree with this. Even Tex, when pressed, will admit he prefers a conservative ruling to a ruling based on strict construction (he has admitted just that in the past, which, to his credit, is at least more honest than Scalia or Thomas will be on the topic).