On Mon, Nov 05, 2001 at 05:05:03PM -0800, Meyer Wolfsheim wrote: > Who decides what is "cruel and unusual"?
Well, hell, who decides what "speech" is, or "religion," or a firearm? (Is Politech speech, is Scientology a religion, is a stun gun a firearm?) The answer, of course, is that the courts decide, influenced to some extent by popular opinion and appointments to the federal bench. But arguing that torture (or, perhaps, truth drugs) is not somehow cruel doesn't get you all that far, at least not without the context of what courts have said in the past, if you intend your post to be predictive at all. -Declan
