Big Fish to Fry, or Shoot

The last week in June is a wonderful week: the Supreme Court hands down its sexiest opinions of the year and I have a birthday. This particular week has carried some mixed blessings, however, both for me and the left-leaning followers of the court. Perhaps as a harbinger of things to come, I got into a nasty car accident yesterday in which my beloved Volvo crumpled underneath a burly Chevy pickup. Mixed blessing #1: I was fine, the car was totaled. The rest of yesterday and this morning has followed a similar pattern.

Mixed blessing #2: While waiting for my insurance agent to call me back, I checked out SCOTUSblog and was thrilled to read that the justices held Louisiana's child rape death penalty law unconstitutional. Soon after, the court struck down the punitive damages award in the Exxon Valdez case. Choice quote from Stevens's dissent:

"In light of Exxon's decision to permit a lapsed alcoholic to command a supertanker carrying tens of millions of gallons of crude oil through the treacherous waters of Prince William Sound, thereby endangering all of the individuals who depended upon the sound for their livelihoods, the jury could reasonably have given expression to its 'moral condemnation' of Exxon's conduct in the form of this award"

Mixed Blessing #3: The court ruled that we Americans enjoy an individual right to own guns. I live in Texas ipso facto I knew that already. So is this inherently a mixed blessing? Although we can now relish the joys of armed protection, we might have to grapple with some attendant paranoia that the grumpy guy stuck in traffic might be packing a Glock in his glove compartment.