Arave v. Creech

Confronted with an insupportable limiting construction of an Unconstitutionally vague statute, the majority in turn concocts its own limiting construction of the state court’s formulation. Like “nonsense upon stilts,”1 however, the majority’s reconstruction only highlights the deficient character of the nebulous formulation that it seeks to advance. Because the metaphor “cold-blooded” by which Idaho defines its “utter disregard” circumstance is both vague and unenlightening, and because the majority’s recasting of that metaphor is not dictated by common usage, legal usage, or the usage of the…