Posted by Orin Kerr: Sentencing Law Case Note: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_05_20-2007_05_26.shtml#1180116079
Over at [1]Sentencing Law & Policy, Doug Berman points out [2]this Harvard Law Review casenote on Eighth Amendment law on and says it is "notable" and "merits a full read." I suspect many readers will agree, although perhaps for different reasons than Doug assumes. If I follow the argument correctly, the note argues that lower court judges should "refuse to enforce unjust laws," should ignore things like "laws" and "precedent" in favor of "spark[ing] a movement" of "judicial civil disobedience" against the Supreme Court and the elected branches of government. According to the author, the behavior of lower court judges will then cause "a subterranean shifting of the tectonic plates of our attitudes and culture." Unfortunately, the author does not explain how the revolution would work after the Supreme Court overrules the novel decisions and Congress impeaches and removes the judges who wrote them. References 1. http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2007/05/notable_hlr_cas.html 2. http://www.harvardlawreview.org/issues/120/may07/recentcases/united_states_v_hungerford.pdf _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
