The views of the Scalia who may become the next next cheif justice of the ussc.
Some U.S. court-watchers say Justice Antonin Scalia is on a "charm offensive" to become the next chief justice. Then he must have been taking the day off when he gave a speech last week and lashed out at the Supreme Court's recent ruling striking down the death penalty for juveniles, and at the idea of a "living Constitution." There is nothing charming about his view that judges have no business considering the constitutionality of aspects of the death penalty, or that the U.S. Constitution should be frozen in time..
In his speech last week at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Scalia attacked the idea of a Constitution that evolves with modern sensibilities, which the Supreme Court has long recognized in its jurisprudence, and of "evolving notions of decency," a standard the court uses to interpret the Eighth Amendment prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishments" in cases like those involving the death penalty..
The implications of Scalia's remarks are sweeping. Many of the most central principles of American constitutional law - from the right to a court-appointed lawyer to the right to buy contraception - have emerged from the court's evolving sense of the meaning of constitutional clauses. Scalia seems to be suggesting that these rights should exist only at the whim of legislatures..
Scalia may believe that by repeating his radical views enough times, Americans will get used to them. But his approach would mean throwing out much of existing U.S. constitutional law, and depriving Americans of basic rights. Scalia's campaign to be the next chief justice, if it is that, is a timely reminder of why he would be a disastrous choice for the job.
Who appointed Scalia in the first place?
