I have a problem when Alito decides it is the role of the court to protect an adult woman from the regrets she may later feel over having an abortion.

This doesn't seem to be the same thing. The injured child is not being asked to make the moral choice over the life or death of their rapist. (And no, we don't force children to make such moral choices all the time.)

But the child is being asked to testify truthfully under the immense pressure of the possibility that their testimony may lead to an execution.

Psychological research shows that children don't have a fully developed sense of the "truth". Clinical experience shows that children often blame themselves in divorce. The death penalty for child rape then imposes two harms: first, to justice, as the child's testimony becomes more suspect as a basis for judgement. Second, it does great harm to the child her/himself through the potential for additional emotional trauma and life-long feelings of guilt. Imposing additional harm on the victim doesn't serve justice either.

I get the feeling that this blog was committed in haste. I hope it will be revisited when more time is available for reading and analyzing the opinion and dissents.

<<I have a problem when Alito decides it is the role of the court to protect an adult woman from the regrets she may later feel over having an abortion.>>

• Actually, Kennedy wrote that one although Alito did sign on.
• It seems like in the last couple terms, "right" or "left" will sign on to his and the sophistry if it means they are in the majority.
• The distinction for Kennedy in that case, though, at least in affect was that he was coming up with a reason to defer to the Legislature's choice of policy, whereas in the child rape case he was essentially substituting his own in striking the law down.

<<This doesn't seem to be the same thing. The injured child is not being asked to make the moral choice over the life or death of their rapist. (And no, we don't force children to make such moral choices all the time.)

But the child is being asked to testify truthfully under the immense pressure of the possibility that their testimony may lead to an execution.

Psychological research shows that children don't have a fully developed sense of the "truth"...>>

Although your thoughts are realistic, they are all aspects like others (e.g. deterence) to be weighed by the LEGISLATURE and I would submit (somewhat like Alito) should not bear on the central argument of whether the law violates 8th amendment.