Scalia, Breyer Bandy About How to Decide Cases

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — It's a rare public debate between two polar opposites on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer sparred Friday night over capital punishment, the direct election of senators and various other constitutional questions during an event in West Texas.

Scalia says the death penalty isn't cruel and unusual punishment because it was a standard punishment for felonies at the time of the Eighth Amendment was written.

But Breyer says people were flogged regularly 200 years ago too and questioned whether Scalia would support allowing that now.

The two bandied about other issues, including Brown vs. The Board of Education, the landmark high court decision in the 1950s that outlawed school segregation case, cable television rulings, and how they view cases that come before them.