US Congress Senate Resolution 4 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: Introduced on January 6 2009 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2009-01-06 - Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. (text of measure as introduced: CR S148)
Pending: Senate Judiciary Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [PDF]

Expresses the sense of the Senate that: (1) the eighth amendment to the Constitution allows the death penalty for the rape of a child where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in death of the victim; (2) the Louisiana statute making child rape punishable by death is constitutional; (3) because Kennedy v. Louisiana was decided under a mistaken view of federal law, the U.S. Supreme Court should grant any petition for rehearing of the case and the portions of the decision regarding the national consensus or evolving standards of decency with respect to the imposition of the death penalty for child rape should not be viewed as binding precedent; and (4) the Supreme Court should reverse its decision on rehearing or in a future case because it was supported by neither commonly held beliefs about cruel and unusual punishment nor by the text, structure, or history of the Constitution.

A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the Supreme Court of the United States erroneously decided Kennedy v. Louisiana, No. 07-343 (2008), and that the eighth amendment to the Constitution of the United States allows the imposition of the death penalty for the rape of a child.

Sen. Jim DeMint [R-SC]

Sen. David Vitter [R-LA]

Date	Chamber	Action
2009-01-06		Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. (text of measure as introduced: CR S148)

Type	Source
Summary	https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/senate-resolution/4/all-info
Text	https://www.congress.gov/111/bills/sres4/BILLS-111sres4is.pdf