Supreme Court says race-based testimony discriminated against black death row inmate.

How can one tell if someone who can count on being remembered by history is a decent person? If being remembered well by history is vital, the pivotal question is, “whose history?”

If, for example, Trump and the Republicans get their way and destroy our country – and no one else has a say, already their obvious purpose – Trump will be the greatest President in history.

I am hoping that Chief Justice John Roberts, someone who I think is very concerned with how he will be remembered, is acting according to how he HOPES the future will go – even when history is uncertain or appears, like now, to be going in the wrong direction. I am hoping that he is an honest person, acting on the strength of his convictions. I am hoping that he is a good person capable of risking a BAD history looking down on him, acting in favor of a GOOD history looking up!

In this case, as in the Obamacare case, Justice Roberts found for a respectable future. Here, a short remark in a much larger context made all the difference in the world to Justice Roberts. However much it appeared that the defendant was deserving of the death penalty, the Justice found he was entitled to a new sentencing trial:

“Roberts said it did not matter that the introduction of the expert testimony was only a small part of the proceedings.

“When a jury hears expert testimony that expressly makes a defendant’s race directly pertinent on the question of life or death, the impact of that evidence cannot be measured simply by how much airtime it received at trial or how many pages it occupies in the record,” Roberts wrote. “SOME TOXINS CAN BE DEADLY IN SMALL DOSES [my caps].”

Justice Roberts was decent here, and my  hope is decent always!

Here! Here! John Roberts!