7.2.2026 – decency standards

decency standards
mark the maturing progress
of society

In a 1958 Supreme Court case, Trop v. Dulles, the Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to revoke citizenship as a punishment for a crime. The ruling’s reference to “evolving standards of decency” is frequently cited in Eighth Amendment jurisprudence. This according to Wikipedia.

The Opinion of the Court was authored by Chief Justice Earl Warren, who discussed the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments. Ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, these protections apply equally to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.

Chief Justice Warren commented on Capitol Punishment, writing:

Whatever the arguments may be against capital punishment, both on moral grounds and in terms of accomplishing the purposes of punishment — and they are forceful — the death penalty has been employed throughout our history, and, in a day when it is still widely accepted, it cannot be said to violate the constitutional concept of cruelty.

But it is equally plain that the existence of the death penalty is not a license to the Government to devise any punishment short of death within the limit of its imagination.

Then the Chief wrote this:

The Court recognized in that case that the words of the Amendment are not precise, and that their scope is not static.

The Amendment must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.

Say that last little bit out loud, I dare you.

Evolving standards of decency mark the progress of a maturing society.

Evolving standards of decency?

Mark the progress of a maturing society?

What does that say of American Society today?

Declining standards of decency mark the regression from maturity for any society.

If this current administration has any standard its a standard of how low can you go.

Maturing?

Let see, we got ourselves a 4 year leading the nation who wonders out loud about awarding himself the Congressional Medal of Honor and a congress ready to authorize such an award.

Decency?

I don’t have the time of the stomach to list the decline in our society’s standards.

But that statement, Evolving standards of decency mark the progress of a maturing society sure hit close to home for the day in history that saw the Declaration of Independence voted on.

Print shows men gathered in the Assembly Room in the Pennsylvania State House (now called Independence Hall), Philadelphia. Completed figures include John Adams, Roger Sherman, James Wilson and Thomas Jefferson, handing a document to John Hancock, president of the Congress. Seated in the front from left to right are Samuel Adams, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin (in a Windsor chair), Charles Carroll and Stephen Hopkins (wearing a dark hat). (Source: American Antiquarian Society catalog, 2008)