The Supreme Conservative Activist Court slashed the punitive damages award in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster by four-fifths, from $2.5 billion to $500 million.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented, by stating that the court was engaging in "lawmaking.” "The new law made by the court should have been left to Congress," wrote Ginsburg. Justice Stephen Breyer made a similar point, opposing a rigid 1 to 1 ratio of punitive damages to victim compensation.
Then we saw the raw vengeful emotions of the conservative Justices lash out at the majority ruling, calling for the death penalty.
The Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 4, that sentencing someone to death for raping a child is unconstitutional, assuming that the victim is not killed. “The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child. When the law punishes by death, it risks its own sudden descent into brutality, transgressing the constitutional commitment to decency and restraint,” Justice Kennedy wrote.
BLAH BLAH BLAH. On a more intellectual level, Justice Alito wrote. "It is the judgment of the Louisiana lawmakers and those in an increasing number of other states that these harms justify the death penalty…(The majority let child rapists off the hook by not considering other factors) 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.”
Despite the fact all the other major industrialized nations have humanely fazed out the death penalty, we are keeping this barbaric tradition alive.
Ruling by force and threat, "the author of the Louisiana law, former Republican state Rep. Pete Schneider, said even opponents of the death penalty told him they would kill anyone who raped their children. "When are you going to have the courage to stand up for what's right for all of the people - but especially the children under 12 that have been brutally raped by monsters?" Schneider said, directing his comments to the justices in majority.-AP
Where will we want to expand the death penalty next?
Ruling by force and threat, "the author of the Louisiana law, former Republican state Rep. Pete Schneider, said even opponents of the death penalty told him they would kill anyone who raped their children. "When are you going to have the courage to stand up for what's right for all of the people - but especially the children under 12 that have been brutally raped by monsters?" Schneider said, directing his comments to the justices in majority.-AP
Where will we want to expand the death penalty next?
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