Results matching “thomas”

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided two cases on the continuing conundrum of "harmless error." That is, under what circumstances can a reviewing court decide that a ruling by the trial court was an error yet affirm the judgment because the error made no difference in the outcome.

The outcomes of these cases are not particularly remarkable. What is somewhat peculiar is the way the Court deals with its own precedents. The line of cases involved here is a case study in the wisdom of minimalist judging and the danger of painting with too broad a brush.

Is the Supreme Court finally ready to stop tinkering with capital sentencing procedure? Today's decision in Kansas v. Marsh raises that possibility. Years ago, when Justice Blackmun said he would "no longer tinker with the machinery of death," many of us said, "Good! Stop tinkering!" Regrettably, the Court continued.

For 34 years now, the Supreme Court has been unable to agree with itself from one year to the next what the Constitution forbids and what it requires. Some of this history is described in CJLF's brief in Ayers v. Belmontes, a California capital case to be argued next Term. While the whole line of Eighth Amendment cases beginning with Furman v. Georgia was intended to prevent arbitrariness in capital sentencing, the constant tinkering with the rules has itself been a primary source of arbitrariness. Murderers have been regularly taken off death row with no regard for the heinousness of their crimes because a court decided that a standard procedure or instruction previously considered valid has magically become a violation of an amendment ratified over 200 years ago.

Thomas Sowell goes after social engineers who claim that the liberal policies of the 1960s saved the country. In his syndicated column, Sowell writes "To those who believe it, this vision is a treasure beyond price because it is also a wonderful vision of themselves -- and they are not likely to give it up for anything so mundane as grubby facts".