We Look To The History Of The

No Doubt, There Are Those Who Believe That Judges - And Particularly Dissenting Judges - Write To Hear Themselves Say, As It Were, 'i, I, I.' And No Doubt, There Are Also Those Who Believe That Judges Are, Like Joan Didion, Primarily Engaged In The Writing Of Fiction. I Cannot Agree With Either Of Those Propositions.

The Principle Inherent In The Clause That Prohibits Pointless Infliction Of Excessive Punishment When Less Severe Punishment Can Adequately Achieve The Same Purposes Invalidates The Punishment.

The Framers Knew That Liberty Is A Fragile Thing, And So Should We.

It Is Tempting To Pretend That Minorities On Death Row Share A Fate In No Way Connected To Our Own, That Our Treatment Of Them Sounds No Echoes Beyond The Chambers In Which They Die. Such An Illusion Is Ultimately Corrosive, For The Reverberations Of Injustice Are Not So Easily Confined.

Law Cannot Stand Aside From The Social Changes Around It.