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Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Courts - "Big Issues Lurk Below Surface of Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings"
That is the headline to a lengthy article by Marcia Coyle of The National Law Journal, posted June 1, 2009. This part particularly caught my eye:
Sentencing scholar Douglas Berman of Ohio State's Moritz College of Law and author of the Sentencing blog, calls "inevitable" senators' questions about the death penalty and the Second Amendment and gun control.Sotomayor is already drawing heavy criticism from gun rights advocates because of a panel decision that she joined in January, holding that prior Supreme Court precedent saying that the Second Amendment only applied at the federal level is still binding law: Maloney v. Cuomo.
But, Berman said, "what senators should be talking about is technology," seeking her views on microchip implants in felons, videoconferencing in prisons to conduct initial medical diagnoses and other functions, and the use of DVDs containing victim impact statements in death penalty and other trials.
"Almost invariably, technology has pros and cons, but this is the future," he said. "We're already working through GPS tracking of sex offenders. It's only a matter of time -- in fact, I think it's happening in Europe -- whether we implant microchips in every felon so we can keep track of them. Having a healthy respect for the benefits and the detriments of technology is extraordinarily important now in a new justice."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 2, 2009 09:40 AM
Posted to Courts in general