“We note again the possibility of a civil or criminal action in state court against a teacher who has excessively punished a child.”
How later courts described this case
- “We note again the possibility of a civil or criminal action in state court against a teacher who has excessively punished a child.”
- “We concur with the approach taken . by the two district courts that have held the Eighth Amendment to be inapplicable to corporal punishment in public schools.“
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
GODBOLD, Circuit Judge, with whom BROWN, Chief Judge,
joins (dissenting):
I agree with Judge Rives that arbitrary and excessive corporal punishment is a denial of substantive due process, although I am not convinced that the punishment in this case rose to the level of such a violation. I, therefore, disagree with the majority’s statement that it would be an abuse of our judicial power to determine whether punishment inflicted in a particular case exceeds constitutional limits. This is a mere rule of convenience, made palatable by characterizing the issue as the difference between five and ten licks. I doubt that the majority really means what it says, and I suspect that if in a future case the punishment inflicted has broken the vic *921 tim’s leg we will face the issue and hold that substantive due process has been violated.