Should the US Supreme Court Decide Cases Based on the Constitution or on Fairness?

[Ragoczy]

Making decisions purely based on law can often lead to situations where most would agree the verdict is unfair. It it really a crime when an eighteen year old has sex with a seventeen year old? It's often lenient, but there is still a record. The original poll I think should have used "common sense" rather than "fairness". I agree both are subjective, but that's why we have very knowledgeable people in law that can make common sense decisions, and should be able to.

First, we're talking about the Supreme Court, whose primary purpose is to decide issues of Constitutional Law, not State Criminal Court.

In State Criminal Court, the issue of "common sense", "fairness" or even "justice" has an advocate -- that being the jury. It's the jury's duty and right to judge the law in addition to the facts of the case and they can return a not guilty verdict if they believe the law is unjust or unjustly applied.

The issue of allowing "very knowledgeable people" make "common sense" decisions is that they don't all have common sense. And what you think is "common sense" might be patent absurdity to someone else -- that's why we have a codified set of laws, rather than leaving it to the arbitrary, subjective view of an individual.