This Week in Ridiculous!
I submit that there are two types of ridiculous. The good ridiculous (a tribute to my California days): where the result is unexpected and perhaps preposterous but ultimately positive. Then there’s the bad ridiculous that just makes you scratch your head.
It’s been a busy week: the country has been captivated with tea parties, patriot parties, the Kagan hearings, Team Edward v. Team Jacob, and, of course, General McCrystal’s regrettable interview (don’t these people have handlers?!). So it might not be surprising that other things have flown under the radar, and we have entries for each end of the ridiculous spectrum this week.
First, the good: In a shocking shift from prior precedent, a 2-1 majority from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals (HQ = Atlanta, Georgia) found a portion of Georgia’s death penalty unconstitutional. Georgia, the state that brought back the death penalty in the 70s with the same momentum that bellbottoms made a comeback in the late 1990s, suddenly finds itself the recipient of corporal punishment because of its capital punishment policy. The issue turns on the execution of the mentally challenged.
On June 18, 2010 (this one really flew in under the radar), the Eleventh Circuit (Judges Barkett and Marcus) held that the burden Georgia places on death-penalty defendants to prove they are intellectually disabled, and thus exempt from the death penalty, is unconstitutional. The burden required a defendant to prove mental retardation beyond a reasonable doubt – the most difficult standard of proof.
The 11th Circuit thought that this unreasonably high hurdle violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban against cruel and unusual punishments. In 2002, in Atkins v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court expressly prohibited the execution of mentally challenged individuals. The Eleventh Circuit, typically conservative on death penalty issues unexpectedly went the other direction, and it earns this week “That’s ridiculous – but awesome!” award.
Our other winner earns the “That’s ridiculous – and depressing” award. In what has become a time honored Fourth of July tradition, the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest at Coney Island, seems as American as apple pie this time of year. Frankly, the whole event is hard to stomach – literally. I can’t watch it. Have no desire to watch it. It’s not even like a train wreck that you can’t peel your eyes away from.
This year’s competition had a notable absence: six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi. But then at the end of event (where Joey Chestnut nabbed the title with 50+ hotdogs gobbled down in 10 minutes), Kobayashi jumped on stage in apparent protest and was subsequently arrested. Arrested at a competitive eating event? When I first saw the headline, I thought perhaps he had joined forces with PETA, but as events became clearer, it became ridiculous.
Apparently, Kobayashi did not compete in the Fourth of July event because he refused to sign a contract with Major League Eating, the fast food equivalent of the NFL. Kobayashi explained that he refused to sign because he wanted to be free to enter contests sanctioned by other groups.
Major League Eating (a) is a real entity and (b) requires contracts? Can’t a guy be a free agent? I can only say that this is Major League Ridiculous!
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Without the ridiculous and without reality television, how would the rest of us know we’re actually pretty normal? Makes you go, “hmmm.”
Glad to hear about the 11th Circuit decision- totally missed it. Georgia remains remarkably Old Testament in its approach to capital punishment. Back in the 1970s, former Court of Appeals of Georgia Justice Dorothy Beasley argued for the state of Georgia on behalf of the state’s approach to the death penalty before SCOTUS when she was assistant attorney general for the state. Not her favorite moment, I think, but she has tentatively accepted an invitation to come speak at GSU Law next spring about this and other stories from her amazing legal career.
As for Takeru: Competitive eating champ Eric “Badlands” Booker (met him on an NYC subway once) shows the formula: competitive eating –>reality TV –> solo hip hop artist. Kobayashi just needs to follow Booker’s lead.
Thanks for the brief glimpse at the ridiculous. None of this, however, is on the Georgia Bar exam. Back to the books I go!