Casey Doherty
@caseydoherty.bsky.social
1.2K followers 846 following 767 posts
she/her Disability policy by day, PhD student by night, building @disabilitypolicy.bsky.social by later night ME/Long Covid/Lyme/MCAS, PMOS, OCD+ Need masks in the DMV area? Msg me! Opinions my own. Reposts/likes not endorsements.
![HAMM v. SMITH THOMAS, J., dissenting III “Some of our most ‘egregious’ cases have been those in which we have granted relief based on an unfounded Eighth Amendment claim,” and Atkins is certainly near the top of the list. Glossip v. Gross, 576 U. S. 863, 905–906 (2015) (THOMAS, J., concurring). Atkins’s rejection of “the historical meaning of the [Eighth] Amendmen[t],” see Ramos, 590 U. S., at 106, has denied the justice governments have given to murder victims from time immemorial, Glossip, 576 U. S., at 905–906 (THOMAS, J., concurring). And it degrades the mildly intellectually disabled by putting them “on a level with . . . infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals”—those who cannot “‘have known better.’” C. S. Lewis, The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment, 13 Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy 147, 151 (1987); see Atkins, 536 U. S., at 318, 319–320. In a future case, the Court should overrule Atkins and restore “the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause’s fixed meaning in resolving any challenge brought under it.” Grants Pass, 603 U. S., at 562 (THOMAS, J., concurring). For now, I respectfully dissent.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6uq3rclbvazqspm3wclznyji/bafkreiez5yhsochtmrboscfz56hx75rv2vxfv46z7shw2kqoycxbsjjpx4)
