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In Kennedy v. Louisiana, the United States Supreme Court held unconstitutional a state law that provided for the imposition of death upon one convicted of raping, but not killing or attempting to kill, a child. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion for the Court, in which the majority, employing various analytical tools, brought its “own judgment” to bear on the excessiveness, and therefore the constitutionality, of the death sentence under the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause. In emphasizing the Court’s use of its own judgment in making the determination of excessiveness or disproportionality, Justice Kennedy and the majority …