Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution is the title of John Paul Stevens' new book. It will be published later this month by Little Brown. You can find more at the link. It is available for pre-order from Amazon.
"Now He Tells Us: John Paul Stevens Wants to Abolish the Death Penalty," is Andrew Cohe's latest post at the Atlantic. Here's the beginning:
In his latest book, Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution, retired United States Supreme Court Justice John Stevens reminds us why some of the most frustrating judges are the ones who have left their courts behind. What would American law look like today, how different might it be, if this moderate justice had been willing to vote on the Court all those decades for what he now believes to be just?
For example, a man who consistently upheld capital convictions and the death penalty itself for over 35 years, who helped send hundreds of men and women to their deaths by failing to hold state officials accountable for constitutional violations during capital trials, who more recently endorsed dubious lethal injection standards because he did not want to buck up against court precedent, now wants the Eighth Amendment to read this way, with five new words added:
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments such as the death penalty inflicted.
It's never too late for redemption, I suppose (unless you are one of those innocent men executed in America since capital punishment returned in its modern form in 1976). And Justice Stevens deserves credit, at least, for sharing his change of heart with the rest of the world in a manner likely to garner much attention.
In the Sunday Book Review section of the New York Times, Justice Stevens answered questions in the weekly feature, By the Book.
What books on the law would you most recommend to the general reader? And to a student of law?
Ken Manaster’s “The American Legal System and Civic Engagement” to the general reader; Leon Green’s “Judge and Jury” for law students.
Who are the best people writing about law today?
Probably Stephen Breyer and Richard Posner.
Related posts are in the books index. You can jump to coverage of Justice Stevens' earlier books and writings.
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