Odds and ends of jobs 

Odds and ends of jobs

Preparing study questions for final examination; preparing final examination itself; writing a reference letter for a student; the usual preparation for class on Thursday.

Are there going to be some more U.S. Supreme Court decisions this week? I spent a lot of time on the new capital punishment case last week--even though we had finished with the criminal justice issues in the textbook.

I actually put a kind of table on the board to make the points in Saletan's piece in Slate: Scalia says the Court as a whole has said teens under 18 are mature enough to have an abortion, but not to be executed. That seems true; but Scalia seems to have contradicted himself the other way: teen abortion no, teen execution yes. One student stuck up his hand and made the point that several conservative defenders of Scalia have made: he is consistent in saying the states should be able to make such judgments.

By the way: O'Connor: teens are mature enough both to have an abortion and to be executed. Kennedy: too immature for either. Rehnquist: same as Scalia. Stevens: swung with "the Court," which has changed membership between Hodgson v. Minnesota (1990) and Roper v. Simmons.

Weirdest line by Scalia in his dissent: "Whether to obtain an abortion is surely a much more complex decision for a young person than whether to kill an innocent person in cold blood."

"Serving on a jury or entering into marriage also involve decisions far more sophisticated than the simple decision not to take another’s life."

So he does get into the "maturity" debate.

I've given up adding photos for now. The wonderful support folks at BlogEasy say they will send me step by step instructions.