{"id":2406,"date":"2008-02-16T17:34:23","date_gmt":"2008-02-16T23:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/uncategorized\/scalia-defends-torture\/"},"modified":"2008-02-16T17:34:23","modified_gmt":"2008-02-16T23:34:23","slug":"scalia-defends-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/uncategorized\/scalia-defends-torture\/","title":{"rendered":"Scalia Defends Torture"},"content":{"rendered":"
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[I]n an interview with BBC Radio\u2019s Law in Action, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia defended torture<\/a>, claiming that it is not necessarily barred by the Constitution: <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to find out where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up Los Angeles is prohibited under the Constitution?<\/strong> Because smacking someone in the face would violate the 8th amendment in a prison context. You can\u2019t go around smacking people about. <\/p>\n

Is it obvious that what can\u2019t be done for punishment can\u2019t be done to exact information that is crucial to this society? It\u2019s not at all an easy question, to tell you the truth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The BBC interviewer, however, objected to Scalia\u2019s use of the so-called \u201cticking time bomb\u201d scenario to justify government torture. \u201cIt\u2019s a bizarre scenario,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause the fact is, it\u2019s very unlikely you\u2019re going to have the one person who can give you that information. So if you use that as an excuse to commit torture, perhaps that\u2019s a dangerous thing.\u201d Scalia responded: <\/p>\n

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Seems to me you have to say, as unlikely as that is, it would be absurd to say that you can\u2019t stick something under the fingernails, smack them in the face<\/strong>. It would be absurd to say that.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Think Progress \u00bb Scalia Defends Torture: It\u2019s \u2018Absurd\u2019 To Say The Gov\u2019t Can\u2019t \u2018Smack\u2019 A Suspect \u2018In The Face\u2019<\/a> <\/p>\n

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A glance at incidents or comments involving Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia that prompted calls for him to step aside in individual Supreme Court cases.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Associated Press: A Glance at Scalia Controversies<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[I]n an interview with BBC Radio\u2019s Law in Action, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia defended torture, claiming that it is not necessarily barred by the Constitution: Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to find out where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up … Continue reading Scalia Defends Torture<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}