Two-Fisted Justice
Ever wonder where cartoonists get their wildest, wackiest ideas? Ruben Bolling got this goofy bit from Justice Scalia himself, on 60 Minutes:
“If someone’s in custody, as in Abu Ghraib, and they are brutalized by a law enforcement person, if you listen to the expression ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’ doesn’t that apply?” Stahl asks.
“No, No,” Scalia replies.
“Cruel and unusual punishment?” Stahl asks.
“To the contrary,” Scalia says. “Has anybody ever referred to torture as punishment? I don’t think so.”
“Well, I think if you are in custody, and you have a policeman who’s taken you into custody…,” Stahl says.
“And you say he’s punishing you?” Scalia asks.
“Sure,” Stahl replies.
“What’s he punishing you for? You punish somebody…,” Scalia says.
“Well because he assumes you, one, either committed a crime … or that you know something that he wants to know,” Stahl says.
“It’s the latter. And when he’s hurting you in order to get information from you…you don’t say he’s punishing you. What’s he punishing you for? He’s trying to extract…,” Scalia says.
The man is a judge. Not just any old judge — he’s a Justice of the Supreme Court — the single U.S. court whose rulings can’t be appealed.
Wild? Yes. Wacky? Yes. Funny? No way.
And John McCain promises more judges like that.
Honestly, it boggles the mind.
