Supreme Court

John McCain delivered a speech on his judicial philosophy on Tuesday.

It's no surprise that liberals hated John McCain's speech on the judiciary on Tuesday, while conservatives (mostly) liked it. But it's disappointing that the speech didn't break any new ground in the debate over judicial nominations. McCain can be refreshingly clear when it comes to subjects that our political debate tends to constrict. Not this time.

The Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case that will determine whether child rapists are eligible for the death penalty. No one has been executed in the US, except for the crime of murder, since 1964.

Before this morning's arguments on whether Louisiana can execute Patrick Kennedy' the Chief Justice read an opinion that must have made the condemned man's lawyers' hearts sink. In what might give a signal, however faint, of the Court's disposition toward capital punishment, John Roberts delivered a judgment that roundly rejected the claim by two Kentucky death-row inmates that lethal injection would be a cruel way to kill them, and therefore prohibited under the Eighth amendment to the Constitution. A healthy majority of 7-2 sided against the inmates. And on a Court that thinks pumping a man full of toxic chemicals is not likely to cause a "'substantial' or 'objectively intolerable' risk of serious harm," Kennedy could not expect a great deal of compassion.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in Indiana v. Edwards, a case that could limit the right of mentally-ill criminal defendants to represent themselves at trial.

A madman had his day in court yesterday. Ahmad Edwards, a schizophrenic who tried to kill a security guard in 1999, appealed his conviction on grounds that the judge hadn't let him act as his own lawyer. The Indiana court that eventually convicted him appointed a public defender after Edwards filed nonsense motions and wrote a letter addressing the judge as "old man." (Edwards has counsel representing him on appeal.) Is it possible, the Supreme Court asked yesterday, to be too crazy to represent yourself in your own trial, but sane enough to stand trial to begin with? MORE