Political Quotes

“Let me read excerpts from the letter: The habeas corpus provisions in the Senate bill * * * are unconstitutional. Though intended in large part to expedite the death penalty review process, the litigation and constitutional rulings will in fact delay and frustrate the imposition of the death penalty * * * The constitutional infirmities * * * violate the Habeas Corpus Suspension Clause, the judicial powers of Article III, and due process * * *. * * * A measure is subject to proscription under the due process clause if it "offends some principle of justice so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental," as viewed by "historical practice." That language is Medina versus California, a 1992 decision. To continue, Independent federal court review of the constitutionality of state criminal judgments has existed since the founding of the Nation, first by writ of error, and since 1867 by writ of habeas corpus. Nothing else is more deeply rooted in America's legal traditions and conscience. There is no clause in which "a state court's incorrect legal determination has ever been allowed to stand because it was reasonable." That is Justice O'Connor, in Wright versus West. She goes on, as the attorneys general quote. "We have always held that federal courts, even on habeas, have an independent obligation to say what the law is." If I may interpolate, she is repeating the famous injunction of Justice Marshall in Marbury versus Madison.”