Supreme Court Rejects Case Challenging NSA Phone Spying | Threat Level. Sandy Levinson on the Constitution as America's civil religion (Balkinization) George F. Will: Weighing standards of decency. In the 1790s, a Tennessee man convicted of horse theft got off easy. Instead of being hanged, as horse thieves often were, he was sentenced to “stand in the pillory one hour, receive thirty-nine lashes upon his bareback well laid on, have his ears nailed to the pillory and cut off, and that he should be branded upon one cheek with the letter H and on the other with the letter T, in a plain and visible manner.”
Tennessee could not do that today because of what the Supreme Court has called “the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” The Eighth Amendment, ratified in 1791, forbids “cruel and unusual punishments.” Originalism holds that the Constitution’s language should be construed to mean what the words meant at the time to those who wrote and ratified the Constitution. On Monday, a Supreme Court ruling about punishment vexed the four justices (John G. Roberts Jr., Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Georgewill@washpost.com. Why It's Constitutional to Execute an Innocent Man. Supreme Court rules against N.C. in juvenile Miranda rights. WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled against North Carolina today in the case of a juvenile questioned in a Chapel Hill school conference room without being read his Miranda rights.
In J.D.B. vs. North Carolina, the court concluded that police must consider a suspect’s age in determining whether the questioning is “coercive,” and must therefore require the reading of the Miranda rights. The court ruled against N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, who argued the case in March. The 5-4 decision, written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, says, “A child’s age is far more than a chronological fact.” While deciding that police must take a suspect’s age into consideration, the court did not issue a decision about whether or not the child in Chapel Hill actually was in custody.
The boy confessed to a neighborhood larceny. Juvenile advocates said the Supreme Court case, J.D.B. vs. Right now, police must decide whether a "reasonable person" would consider themselves in custody. In J.D.B. vs. J.D.B.' Supremes Make It Official: Wall St. and Corporate Execs are Above the Law When They Lie to the Investing Public. Jeff McCord, Contributing Writer In its far-reaching Janus decision, a divided Supreme Court on June 13 issued a 5 to 4 Decision that virtually immunizes investment and corporate managers against civil fraud actions by investors and the SEC when they knowingly lie to the investing public in certain easily replicated circumstances.
This ruling follows a similar 2008 decision (Stoneridge) that grants immunity from investor accountability to managerial advisers – accountants, lawyers, financial consultants – who aid and abet or otherwise knowingly help investment and corporate managers lie in financial and other statements. “When Clinton Lied, Nobody Died” -- or Lost Their Life Savings Reminiscent of then President Clinton’s pedantic and inventive definition of the word “it” (as in “was ‘it’ sex?”) Here, in part, is what the Free Online Dictionary says “make” means: 1.
To cause to exist or happen; bring about; create: made problems for us; making a commotion.2. Justice Breyer explains: Main Page - ScotusWiki. Court Nominee's Life Is Rooted in Faith and Respect for Law.