Supreme Court Wusses Out On Sending Kids To Jail For Life, And More
The big decision we've all been waiting for is finally in: "The Supreme Court ruled Monday that it is unconstitutional for states to require juveniles convicted of murder to be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole." DOWN WITH THE COURT. Then what's the point of waking up in the morning, now? "Monday’s decision left open the possibility that judges could sentence juveniles to life without parole in individual cases of murder, but said state laws cannot automatically impose such a sentence."So they're saying there's a chance. Phew. Other non-Obamacare law stuff that our nine gods wasted their time on today include (a) money and (b) Mexicans, in Arizona.
Aside from the fact that four Supreme Court justices think children should be allowed to receive sentences of life in jail without parole, here's today's other big news.
Much of SB 1070, the cherished Arizona racism law, was thrown out: "The court ruled that Arizona cannot make it a misdemeanor for immigrants to fail to carry identification that says whether they are in the United States legally; cannot make it a crime for undocumented immigrants to apply for a job; and cannot arrest someone based solely on the suspicion that the person is in this country illegally." On the other hand, if the coppers have already nabbed you for jaywalking or smoking the reefer or whatever, "papers, please" still applies: "However, the court let stand the part of the law that requires police to check the immigration status of anyone they detain, if there is 'reasonable suspicion' that the person is unlawfully in the United States." So remember, Mexitrons, if they ever catch you for something, put on your George H.W. Bush Halloween masks as usual.
Some had thought that the Court might have been "reconsidering"Citizens Unitedby hearing a Montana campaign finance case. Ha ha ha, idiots. They were just hearing it to reinforce Citizens United , forever: "The Supreme Court on Monday effectively overturned a century-old Montana law that prohibited corporate spending on political races in the state, ruling 5-4 that the measure violates the First Amendment rights of companies to spend funds on elections." It'll be steak dinners tonight, for the corporations.
The health care reform decision will come on Thursday. Do any bloggers out there have some cocaine to share?
That would sound very much like an unconstitutional application of the kind that SCOTUS explicitly held out the possibility of striking down once the actual interpretation of that section becomes clear. As I said elsewhere here, section 2 essentially reads "do this totally unconstitutional thing, in a totally constitutional way", and the court is waiting to see which half of that is emphasized before ruling further.
Fetuses. Babies don't get rights.