Under Chief Justice John Roberts’ astute leadership, the Supreme Court concluded last week that the means of carrying out capital punishment in many states is not “cruel and unusual” punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. By a 7-to-2 vote, in the case of Baze v. Rees, the Court upheld Kentucky’s method of executing a convicted murderer by lethal injection. This case is a sterling example of how the judiciary should interpret the text and history of the constitutional clause at issue to reach an appropriate result. The Court eschewed making public policy from the bench or importing foreign rulings or world opinion as guides for what the United States Constitution supposedly should mean.

Justice Roberts’ opinion stated, in no uncertain terms, that “capital punishment is constitutional.” He reiterated what the Supreme Court had previously held – that “the punishment of death is not cruel within the meaning of that word as used in the Constitution.” Full Piece