Yesterday the Supreme Court heard argument in Baze v. Rees, otherwise known as the “lethal injection case.” Contrary to popular perception—and the wishes of certain activist groups—Baze considers neither the constitutionality of lethal injection as a method of execution nor the validity of the death penalty itself. Instead, the issue is whether the particular three-chemical formula used by most states that employ lethal injection causes undue pain and suffering such that the method violates the Eighth Amendment’s proscription of “cruel and unusual punishment.” The Court’s decision—likely to be 5–4 with Justice Kennedy the swing vote as always—may turn on what weight the justices place on the availability of other “ drug cocktails” that purportedly accomplish the same result with less chance for “undue pain and suffering.” But that critical point raises two further (non-legal) questions: 1) Whether the case is about little more than delaying executions that will take place regardless of this particular ruling; and 2) Why haven’t all the relevant states simply adopted the “better” chemical protocols and rendered this case moot? Ultimately, this high profile case is a waste of judicial resources.
Cato at Liberty
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Constitutional Law
Voter ID and YOU
The case of Crawford v. Marion County Election Board is being argued in the Supreme Court tomorrow. In a TechKnowledge commentary out today, I argue that the voter ID debate is largely a tempest in a teapot. But teapots can boil over .…
Another Anti-Immigration Campaign Flops
With his disappointing second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses last night, Mitt Romney joins a growing list of politicians who have failed to ride the immigration issue to success when it counts.
To woo conservative voters, Romney has run a series of hard-hitting ads attacking his Republican rivals for being soft on illegal immigration. His ads and campaign speeches have thumped John McCain for supporting “amnesty” for unauthorized immigrants already here and Mike Huckabee for supporting in-state tuition for the minor children of illegal immigrants.
Although Romney had struck a more constructive tone toward the issue when he was governor of Massachusetts, polls and talk radio have convinced him that sounding harsher-than-thou on illegal immigration would be a key to winning the hearts of conservative Republicans. The strategy didn’t appear to help him in Iowa even though he outspent his rivals by millions of dollars.
Romney isn’t the first politician to push the immigration button and come away empty-handed. Just before the Iowa caucuses, Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo announced he was dropping out of the Republican primary race even though he trumpeted the most hard-core anti-illegal-immigration stance of any candidate. California Congressman Duncan Hunter barely registered among Iowa caucus goers last night even though he too had staked out a hard-line position against any legalization. And let’s not forget that in 2000, the articulate and amiable Pat Buchanan spent $12 million in taxpayer dollars to spread his anti-immigration message as the Reform Party candidate for president, and attracted a paltry one half of one percent of the vote on Election Day.
Americans have always been ambivalent about immigration, and a solid majority today wants the government to seriously address the problem of illegal immigration. But as I have argued here and here, voters have not rewarded politicians who demagogue the issue. Let’s hope the rest of the Republican field takes notice.
Because the “War” Meme Leads to Self-Injurious Overreaction, Which is What the Terrorism Strategy Seeks to Cause …
… the British government is ditching the words “War on Terror.”
Australian National ID Card Abandoned
This somewhat cryptic blog post at Wired reflects the delight of Roger Clarke that the Australian national ID card has been dropped by the incoming government. Clarke wrote an article in 1994 that is probably fairly regarded as the foundation of identification theory. I expanded on his thinking in my book, Identity Crisis.
In related news, Montana Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester put language prohibiting the expenditure of federal funds for development of a national ID card in the omnibus spending bill Congress passed last week. Because the Department of Homeland Security denies that REAL ID is a national ID, this language is probably hortatory during the current administration.
Update on the Internet Gambling Dispute
Good news and not-so-good news on the long-running saga over internet gambling (background here): Antigua has been awarded $21 million annual “damages” as a result of the United States’ restrictions on offshore provision of internet gambling and betting services.
That is far less than the $3.4 billion Antigua had asserted it is owed, but more than the United States had suggested was warranted ($500,000). On the other hand, the arbitrator gave Antigua permission to collect the damages by suspending their obligations to protect U.S. intellectual property. The $21 million worth of pirated software, movies, and music would go on annually unless and until the United States changes its laws, so we can expect some lobbying from Hollywood to have the restrictions on internet gambling lifted.
The report just came out, so I have yet to absorb it fully myself, but here it is.
DHS: And We Even Obey the Law!
The Department of Homeland Security’s Officer for Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Daniel W. Sutherland, explains here the great pains DHS is taking … well, not to embarrass itself as American Muslims return from the Hajj. Well and good.
But he goes a little far in touting the department’s efforts: “For the first time in the federal government, a Cabinet-level Secretary has placed two civil libertarians in senior leadership positions — Hugo Teufel, our Chief Privacy Officer, and me.”
The Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Privacy Officer are statutory positions. I’m not sure self-congratulation is in order for following the law.