Dee, I'm afraid that ship has long since sailed.

The Supreme Court has transformed itself into a third, indirectly elected legislative branch.  One that can simply subsitute its beliefs regardless of what laws the two legitimate bodies may pass.

We need to do something to restore the balance of powers in our federal government if we allow this ruling to stand.

But Jindal won't let that happen (IMHO).

I believe in this specific case, they SCOTUS must, in fact, take into account the national opinion, for "cruel and unusual" is a purely objective standard.

That said, I agree that SCOTUS should rehear this case, in light of the Congress' UCMJ update. I also disagree in their ruling that death to a baby-raper is cruel and unusual. The death penalty is not cruel, and if we start using it quickly and effectively, would no longer be unusual.

 That is a great catch by the Washington Post and renders Justice Kennedy's opinion in Kennedy v Louisiana all but worthless.  

Kennedy also delivered the opinion in Boumedine v Bush, a case which will go down in the annals of judicial folly.  In that opinion Justice Kennedy aparently failed to digest this plenary power of the Congress:

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

Our praise seeking justice also created a situation where detainees can challenge their detention in District Court before their Military Commission status hearing or before their Military Commission trial. That is a unique situation in Federal Law. 

To reach this conclusion Kennedy had to ignore  Article I of the constiution which states Congress had the power to

... constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

and Article III which states

The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish

so that he could reach the strained conclusion that only legislatively enacted District Courts are constitutionaly equiped to hear habeus corpus petitions rather than legislatively enacted Military Commissions.

It will be hard to find a more political and absurd decision. That decision amounted to a judicial power grab.

Justice Kennedy was a last minute choice after Robert Bork was rejected by the Senate and Jacob Ginsburg's nomination was sunk by Nina Totenberg of NPR.  Politics aside, I cannot help but think that either of these two men would have provided greater clarity of thought for the Court.