Supreme Court or world court?On October 28, the Atlanta-based Southern Center for International Studies presented Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26 1930) is an American jurist who served as the first female Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was considered a strict constructionist. its World Justice Award. During her acceptance speech, O'Connor expressed concern that the High Court has seldom considered foreign laws when reaching important decisions affecting U.S. jurisprudence. She was gratified grat·i·fy tr.v. grat·i·fied, grat·i·fy·ing, grat·i·fies 1. To please or satisfy: His achievement gratified his father. See Synonyms at please. 2. to note, however, that a few recent decisions may be signaling a change, as the court increasingly acknowledges legal standards set by the "global community." O'Connor approvingly noted that two important Supreme Court decisions in which she concurred were based in part on foreign laws. A 2002 case, Atkins v. Virginia In a landmark 6–3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court barred the execution of mentally retarded people, ruling that it constituted "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. , further undermined capital punishment capital punishment, imposition of a penalty of death by the state. History Capital punishment was widely applied in ancient times; it can be found (c.1750 B.C.) in the Code of Hammurabi. for heinous crimes by barring the execution of supposedly mentally retarded individuals. And a 2003 case, Lawrence v. Texas The Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S., 123 S.Ct. 2472, 156 L.Ed.2d 508 (2003), striking down state Sodomy laws as applied to gays and lesbians. , further eroded the moral underpinnings of our culture by striking down Texas' anti-sodomy law. In the latter case, O'Connor reminded her audience of internationalists, the court majority relied partly on a series of decisions by European courts. For instance, Justice Anthony Kennedy asserted in his majority decision that "the right the petitioners seek in this case has been accepted as an integral part of human freedom in many other countries," and there was no evidence that governmental interest in circumscribing sexual deviancy sexual deviancy Paraphilia Psychiatry Sexual excitement to the point of erection and/or orgasm, when the object of that excitement is considered abnormal in the context of the practitioner's learned societal norms Types Exhibitionism, fetishism, frotteurism, (which he termed "personal choice") is "somehow more legitimate or urgent" in the U.S. Though O'Connor's concurring opinion disagreed with some of Kennedy's reasoning, it did not take issue with his reliance on foreign laws. Justice O'Connor predicted that, "over time, we will rely increasingly--or take notice at least increasingly--on international and foreign law in resolving domestic issues." Doing so, she speculated, "may not only enrich our own country's decisions, I think it may create that all important good impression." More likely, it would further de-Constitutionalize High Court decisions while advancing the collectivist col·lec·tiv·ism n. The principles or system of ownership and control of the means of production and distribution by the people collectively, usually under the supervision of a government. new world order that Justice O'Connor appears to embrace. |
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