"The Constitution is not a living organism for Pete's sake. It's a
legal document. If you told John Marshall that the Constitution morphed
... he would be unbelieving. The death penalty was not considered cruel
and unusual punishment. There's no doubt about it. Now it may be a very
bad idea. And if the people want to change it, nothing in the
Constitution requires that you have the death penalty. But that's quite
a different question from whether your Supreme Court ... can decide for
the whole country that the death penalty is no longer permitted. If you
want to be governed by an aristocracy, there are better aristocracies
than nine lawyers." Speech at Stetson University College of Law, April
5, 2007.