JIM LINDGREN ON THE DEATH PENALTY AND CHILD RAPE:

Yet the Court shouldn’t talk about following a “national consensus” on an issue on which in 1997 only 31% of the American public agreed with the Court and 65% of the public opposed the Court’s view. The justices should admit that they follow ELITE opinion, not the views and morality of the ordinary public. If they can’t go that far, they should at least stop preaching to us about a “national consensus” that is little more than a fig leaf for their own (often quite reasonable) policy preferences.

Indeed. Or we should go whole-hog and just start electing Supreme Court Justices. Then they’d actually have the democratic legitimacy they’re claiming with talk of consensus.