At Last, No Death Penalty for Children
A great victory for progressives and simple human decency came from an unexpected quarter Tuesday, with the Supreme Court banning the death penalty for crimes committed by children. The United States was the last country on earth that allowed this barbaric practice, with such bulwarks of civil liberties as Saudi Arabia, Iran and China having dropped it in the past decade. The decision spared the lives of 72 people now on death row.
The Court relied primarily on the steady movement of states away from executing juveniles, both legislatively and in practice, to conclude that the ban was required by "evolving standards of decency." Drawing howls of protest from Justice Antonin Scalia, whose judicial philosophy could best be described as medieval, the majority also invoked the international condemnation of the practice and returned to the principle that "the Constitution contemplates that the Court's own judgment be brought to bear on the question of the acceptability of the death penalty." This could provide precedent for a full ban on the death penalty under a more liberal future court.
One obvious lesson for progressives is that even this relatively conservative Court can make the right decision, and we must not allow the Bush Administration to pack it with young right-wing ideologues. Joining Scalia and his puppet Clarence Thomas in dissenting from Tuesday's 5-4 decision were Chief Justice Rehnquist and Sandra Day O'Connor, possibly the next two justices to be replaced. Despite her decision here, O'Connor is the most common swing vote and her seat must not fall to a conservative extremist.
Another important area of work is in state legislatures. With the Presidency and Congress in Republican hands, state government provides opportunities to block some of the most retrograde proposals coming out of Washington, and to move forward on progressive issues such as health care, civil rights and social justice. State work is valuable for its own sake but can have national impact--the Court relied explicitly on the fact that 30 states prohibit the juvenile death penalty, including five that have dropped it since the question was last considered in 1989.
[Text of Supreme Court decision (large PDF)]
Background from the Death Penalty Information Center
John Brodkin is an ADA member and former Executive Director of the Greater Washington chapter. Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of ADA.
The Court relied primarily on the steady movement of states away from executing juveniles, both legislatively and in practice, to conclude that the ban was required by "evolving standards of decency." Drawing howls of protest from Justice Antonin Scalia, whose judicial philosophy could best be described as medieval, the majority also invoked the international condemnation of the practice and returned to the principle that "the Constitution contemplates that the Court's own judgment be brought to bear on the question of the acceptability of the death penalty." This could provide precedent for a full ban on the death penalty under a more liberal future court.
One obvious lesson for progressives is that even this relatively conservative Court can make the right decision, and we must not allow the Bush Administration to pack it with young right-wing ideologues. Joining Scalia and his puppet Clarence Thomas in dissenting from Tuesday's 5-4 decision were Chief Justice Rehnquist and Sandra Day O'Connor, possibly the next two justices to be replaced. Despite her decision here, O'Connor is the most common swing vote and her seat must not fall to a conservative extremist.
Another important area of work is in state legislatures. With the Presidency and Congress in Republican hands, state government provides opportunities to block some of the most retrograde proposals coming out of Washington, and to move forward on progressive issues such as health care, civil rights and social justice. State work is valuable for its own sake but can have national impact--the Court relied explicitly on the fact that 30 states prohibit the juvenile death penalty, including five that have dropped it since the question was last considered in 1989.
[Text of Supreme Court decision (large PDF)]
Background from the Death Penalty Information Center
John Brodkin is an ADA member and former Executive Director of the Greater Washington chapter. Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of ADA.
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