Scalia: "Kennedy, You're An Idiot!"

Rehearing of the 'death-penalty-for-child-rapists' SCOTUS case is denied.

Scalia addresses the majority (in part):


I am voting against the petition for rehearing because the views of the American people on the death penalty for child rape were, to tell the truth, irrelevant to the majority’s decision in this case. The majority opinion, after an unpersuasive attempt to show that a consensus against
the penalty existed, in the end came down to this: “[T]he Constitution contemplates that in the end our own judgment will be brought to bear on the question of the acceptability of the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment.” Of course the Constitution contemplates no such thing; the proposed Eighth Amendment would have been laughed to scorn if it had read “no criminal penalty shall be imposed which the Supreme Court deems unacceptable.” But that is what
the majority opinion said, and there is no reason to believe that absence of a national consensus would provoke second thoughts.

Kennedy has always smoked a little sumpin' hot before writing his opinions (Casey is an excellent example.) Happy to see that Scalia takes appropriate note.