People Look At Rights As

There Is No Basis In Text, Tradition, Or Even In Contemporary Practice (if That Were Enough), For Finding In The Constitution A Right To Demand Judicial Consideration Of Newly Discovered Evidence Of Innocence Brought Forward After Conviction. My Concern Is That In Making Life Easier For Ourselves We Not Appear To Make It Harder For The Lower Federal Courts, Imposing Upon Them The Burden Of Regularly Analyzing Newly-discovered-evidence-of-innocence Claims In Capital Cases (in Which Event Such Federal Claims, It Can Confidently Be Predicted, Will Become Routine And Even Repetitive).

Many Think It Not Only Inevitable But Entirely Proper That Liberty Give Way To Security In Times Of National Crisis--that, At The Extremes Of Military Exigency, Inter Arma Silent Leges. Whatever The General Merits Of The View That War Silences Law Or Modulates Its Voice, That View Has No Place In The Interpretation And Application Of A Constitution Designed Precisely To Confront War And, In A Manner That Accords With Democratic Principles, To Accommodate It.

It Would Be Gross Understatement To Say That The Telecommunications Act Of 1996 Is Not A Model Of Clarity. It Is In Many Important Respects A Model Of Ambiguity Or Indeed Even Self-contradiction.

Justice White's Conclusion Is Perhaps Correct, If One Assumes That The Task Of A Court Of Law Is To Plumb The Intent Of The Particular Congress That Enacted A Particular Provision. That Methodology Is Not Mine Nor, I Think, The One That Courts Have Traditionally Followed. It Is Our Task, As I See It, Not To Enter The Minds Of The Members Of Congress - Who Need Have Nothing In Mind In Order For Their Votes To Be Both Lawful And Effective - But Rather To Give Fair And Reasonable Meaning To The Text Of The United States Code, Adopted By Various Congresses At Various Times.

If, Even As The Price To Be Paid For A Fifth Vote, I Ever Joined An Opinion For The Court That Began: 'the Constitution Promises Liberty To All Within Its Reach, A Liberty That Includes Certain Specific Rights That Allow Persons, Within A Lawful Realm, To Define And Express Their Identity,' I Would Hide My Head In A Bag. The Supreme Court Of The United States Has Descended From The Disciplined Legal Reasoning Of John Marshall And Joseph Story To The Mystical Aphorisms Of The Fortune Cookie.