{Justice Stephen] Breyer said 200 years ago, people thought flogging at a whipping post was not cruel and unusual.
"And indeed there were whipping posts where people were flogged virtually to death up until the middle of the 19th century," he said. "If we had a case like that today I'd like to see how you'd vote."
The two bandied about other issues, including Brown vs. The Board of Education, the landmark high court decision in the 1950s that outlawed school segregation case, cable television rulings, and how they view cases that come before them.
Later, Scalia returned to the issue of flogging, saying it's "stupid" but "not unconstitutional, which is stupid. There's a lot of stuff that stupid that's not constitutional."
Scalia said he has no interest in what legislators intended when making a particular law. Breyer countered, saying judges need to go back and find out the purpose legislators had when crafting a bill.
"I don't at all look to what I think the legislature thought," Scalia said. "I frankly don't care what the legislature thought."
Breyer responded quickly, saying, "That's the problem," which brought thunderous laughter from the crowd.
The heart of a Conservative: not really caring about the original intent, as long as you get your way. As a modern Justice, he should be declared unfit to practice law.
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