The Supreme Court

I am one of those people who enjoys the time of the year when the U.S. Supreme Court rules on various cases. For a while I wanted to become a lawyer before later deciding to be an engineer. I like how the court reasons about the constitutionality of laws. Many people get mad that the court doesn't support this or that, but the court isn't supposed to support anything. It is not for the judges to decide that they don't like how a law has been written and thus strike it down or to decide that they like a law and decide to keep it. They are only to decide if a law is valid constitutionally whether or not they agree with it. This is usually followed.

Recently the court ruled on judicial rights (writ of habeas corpus) for detainees at Gitmo. They also did a ruling regarding campaign finance laws which I think was good in that I think most campaign finance laws are on shaky constitutional ground, although I must admit that I haven't looked at the law in question in great detail. They also struck down a ban on handguns anywhere in Washington D. C. (including homes) while stating that some weapons can be limited and there can be limits in churches, schools, etc. Their other major controversial ruling was to strike down laws giving the death penalty to child rapists.

This last ruling made a lot of people mad, yet I agree with it. I certainly don't agree with what child rapists have done, but I don't think the death penalty should be given to someone who hasn't killed someone with the lone exception of for treason (which is specifically spelled out in the constitution). I don't have a problem with the death penalty for murderers, although I wouldn't mind if we gave them life sentences instead. I think the justification for the death penalty is that someone killed someone else so the state has the right to kill them. It is basically an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and by extension a life for a life. I think that giving the death penalty for any other crime puts the penalty on really shaky ground. Put these horrible people in prison for life instead.

Now, while I generally liked the rulings I was disappointed with the split in the court. I believe all of these rulings were 5-4. The conservatives and liberals were in the majority and dissent depending on the case. This means that in my view neither the conservative or liberal justices were doing their jobs right. At the same time it shows that there is a pretty good balance on the court.