JUDGE: Needs enlightening

We must have reached a new Age of Enlightenment. According to an Aug. 15 Press article entitled “Judges taking a new look at sentencing guidelines law,” a Fourth District judge thinks the law enacted in 1977 contains outdated thinking. He states that, “When this statute was written, we didn’t know anything.”

The merits of reviewing sentencing guidelines notwithstanding, His Honor must think the Dark Ages extended well into the 20th century. It’s comforting to know that since his enlightenment, we no longer have to fear the long arms of Inquisitions and Witch Trials. The article would lead us to believe that following 41 years of ignorance, a new generation of lawyers now “know something.”

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Do you suppose that a couple of hundred years ago, the framers of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution already “knew something?” A couple of hundred years before the Fourth District judge finally figured out that in 1977, “we didn’t know anything.”

Mr. Madison would probably agree!

BOB LaRUE

Hauser