In the meantime and in between time,* from findlaw.com, lawyer and academic Elaine Cassel reflects on how the Court's death penalty jurisprudence may be affected by the presence of Associate Justice Roberts:
On one hand, he is a staunch Catholic and the Catholic Church has often taken a stand against the death penalty.
On the other hand, in a February 1983 memo written while he worked in the Reagan White House, Roberts depicted Supreme Court death penalty appeals as, put bluntly, an annoyance and waste of time. He pointed out that the Supreme Court could significantly reduce its caseload "by abdicating the role of fourth or fifth guesser in death penalty cases."
How Will the Supreme Court's Death Penalty Jurisprudence Change?
* As the late, great Ed Whalen used to say, signing off from Calgary's
Stampede Wrestling.