As the old journalism saying (or perhaps cliche) goes, if a dog bites a man, that's not news, but if a man bites a dog, that's news. So how much less newsworthy is it if a dog does not bite a man?
An anti-death-penalty organization breathlessly announced in an email today the "BREAKING" news that (gasp! horrors!) the United States Supreme Court has denied review in a case where the defendant sought to raise, for the umpteenth time, the question the high court settled definitively forty years ago this coming July -- no, the Constitution does not forbid capital punishment.
The case is Walter v. Pennsylvania, No. 15-650. SCOTUSblog has a case page on it, though I don't know why.
Would it be news if SCOTUS turned down a petition asking it to decide if federal courts had authority to decide whether a statute is constitutional, a question it decided in 1803? How about one asking for a decision on whether racial segregation of public schools is constitutional, a question it decided in 1954? Gregg v. Georgia is no less solid than those precedents.
What is the point of the email? This "really bad news" is an occasion to send the organization money.
An anti-death-penalty organization breathlessly announced in an email today the "BREAKING" news that (gasp! horrors!) the United States Supreme Court has denied review in a case where the defendant sought to raise, for the umpteenth time, the question the high court settled definitively forty years ago this coming July -- no, the Constitution does not forbid capital punishment.
The case is Walter v. Pennsylvania, No. 15-650. SCOTUSblog has a case page on it, though I don't know why.
Would it be news if SCOTUS turned down a petition asking it to decide if federal courts had authority to decide whether a statute is constitutional, a question it decided in 1803? How about one asking for a decision on whether racial segregation of public schools is constitutional, a question it decided in 1954? Gregg v. Georgia is no less solid than those precedents.
What is the point of the email? This "really bad news" is an occasion to send the organization money.
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