Consensus Building … In Reverse

According to the New York Times, 85 Republicans in the House have submitted a letter to the Supreme Court asking it to reconsider its ruling in Kennedy v. Louisiana which invalidated the state’s death penalty for child rapists.  The decision was based, in large part, on a huge error — the Court divined an emerging national consensus against capital punishment for rape when, in fact (and overlooked by the justices), Congress had enacted a law providing for just such punishment less than two years earlier.

It seems to me this is the wrong approach with the five justices to whom the letter appeals.  By the logic of the Court’s liberal bloc, the fact that 85 members signed the letter will be taken to mean that 350 lawmakers in the House did not.  Add 100 non-signing senators to the mix and you have … an emerging congressional consensus in favor of the Court’s decision.

I know it doesn’t make sense, but you watch.