Lying To Make Friends

In his brief (1.5 paragraph) concurrence to today’s ruling that life without parole is an unconstitutional sentence for minors for non-homicide offenses, Stevens gives about as perfect and concise a summary of a liberal view of Constitutional interpretation as one could ask for:

Society changes. Knowledge accumulates. We learn, sometimes, from our mistakes. Punishments that did not seem cruel and unusual at one time may, in the light of reason and experience, be found cruel and unusual at a later time; unless we are to abandon the moral commitment embodied in the Eighth Amendment , proportionality review must never become effectively obsolete. . .While Justice Thomas would apparently not rule out a death sentence for a $50 theft by a 7-year-old. . . the Court wisely rejects his static approach to the law. Standards of decency have evolved since 1980. They will never stop doing so.

-AR