Reply #20: I Actually Agree with Scalia That Torture

[On the Road]

as part of an interrogation is not punishment and therefore does not constitute "cruel and unusual punishment." But it so obviously violates the concepts at the core of the Bill of Rights that it's mind-boggling that it can be defended on a constitutional basis.

And then in contrast he goes and (probably) writes the decision that the Florida recount violated Bush's rights in some incomprehensible way. Unbelievable.

This is how strict constructionism is used -- as a fig leaf for letting the federal government get away with anything it wants. That is why it is so important to insist that there are rights that may not be enumerated in the constitution itself, and yet which the court needs to rule on.