“We reject the dissent's contention that our approach, by "largely return[ing] the task of defining the contours of Eighth Amendment protection to political majorities," leaves "‘[c]onstitutional doctrine [to] be formulated by the acts of those institutions which the Constitution is supposed to limit,'" […] By reaching a decision supported neither by constitutional text nor by the demonstrable current standards of our citizens, the dissent displays a failure to appreciate that "those institutions which the Constitution is supposed to limit" include the Court itself. To say, as the dissent says, that "‘it is for us ultimately to judge whether the Eighth Amendment permits imposition of the death penalty,'" (quoting Enmund v. Florida) -- and to mean that as the dissent means it, i. e., that it is for us to judge, not on the basis of what we perceive the Eighth Amendment originally prohibited, or on the basis of what we perceive the society through its democratic processes now overwhelmingly disapproves, but on the basis of what we think "proportionate" and "measurably contributory to acceptable goals of punishment" -- to say and mean that, is to replace judges of the law with a committee of philosopher-kings.”

Stanford v. Kentucky (1989) (plurality part, case later overruled by Roper); decided June 26, 1989.
1980s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Nov. 16, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We reject the dissent's contention that our approach, by "largely return[ing] the task of defining the contours of Eigh…" by Antonin Scalia?
Antonin Scalia photo
Antonin Scalia 100
former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United… 1936–2016

Related quotes

John Bright photo

“The Aristocratic Institutions of England [had] acted much like the Slavery Institutions of America…[in] demoralis[ing] large classes outside their own special boundaries…[in producing] a long habit of submission…[and in] enfeebl[ing] by corrupting those who should assail them.”

John Bright (1811–1889) British Radical and Liberal statesman

Letter to Richard Congrieve (24 November 1866), quoted in Maurice Cowling, 1867: Disraeli, Gladstone and Revolution. The Passing of the second Reform Bill (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967), p. 25.
1860s

Laurence Tribe photo

“"[C]onstitutional silence"... pervades all of constitutional law.”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

Soundings and Silences (2016)

Antonin Scalia photo
Ted Kennedy photo
John Marshall photo
Antonin Scalia photo
Joseph Hayne Rainey photo
Lyndon B. Johnson photo
Glenn Greenwald photo

Related topics