“Flogging as a punishment might have been fine in the 18th century. That doesn’t mean that it would be OK, and not cruel and unusual, today.” —Justice Stephen Breyer, arguing against Justice Scalia’s belief in the principle of originalism, which holds that the Constitution is a dead document and that different interpretations from the original authors’ intent should not be applied. In his new book, Making Our Democracy Work, A Judge’s View, Breyer makes the case that the Founding Fathers knew “perfectly well that conditions would change.” [NPR via WSJ]
