There is NO valid consitutional basis for this decision.
No matter what you think about the death penalty, there is nothing in the Constitution which forbids execution of teenage thugs who murder.
Justice Kennedy is way off the beam when he cites trends in state practice to justify his decision. That has nothing to do with what the Constitution says. The law is not trends: it is what the law-makers intended. History shows that a decision like this was never in the minds of the framers of the Contitution.
These five justices are complete legal idiots. If a mentally retarded person is not responsible for his crimes, surely judges who are as dumb as the majority in this case cannot be left in a place of responsibility on the Supreme Court.
The issue of the Supreme Court and judicial review is probably the most important in the country. It is what brought us widespread abortion. It will bring us more crimes and lawlessness. Therefore, it is the one fight which we must win. All other political quarrels are as nothing next to this one.
We are in a bad way, because much of the legal establishment enjoys the sort of lawlessness which the Supreme Court majority practiced today. They have various theories which justify it, but all such theories are bogus, and miss the point. It is characteristic of the legalistic mind, prejudiced by ideology and befuddled by masses of detail, to miss the main point of things. One might describe their state as "induced insanity." There is probably nothing organically amiss with the brain of one of those five in today's majority, but they are acting crazy.
Perfectly intelligent people can act like idiots: that is the definition of a fool. It is probably the word we should use for Judge Kennedy those who joined him in this inexcusable decision.
Oh no, there is nothing foolish about this decision.
The Supreme Court is the senior branch of government, the one with the FINAL, unappealable authority on all issues, limited only by its own discretion and the need for 5 justices to agree.
That was not the way the Constitution was WRITTEN, perhaps, but since the Civil War, all other branches of government, federal and state, have acquiesced to the supreme, final and uncontestable authority of the Federal Judiciary and the Supreme Court in particular.
And since one of the issues is the Constitution itself, we need only look to the previous sentence. What does the Constitution mean? Could be many things. But the Supreme Authority in America is the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court has said that the Constitution says that the Judiciary is the final authority in government. Every other branch of government has submitted to the authority of the court. None dares challenge the authority of the Court by defying it.
And therefore, as a matter of actual law and practice, the Constitution says that Supreme Court has the authority to issue opinions like today's under the Constitution. Why? Well, because the Supreme Court says so, and everyone else OBEYS them.
The only way to establish that the Constitution does NOT mean that, and that the Supreme Court does NOT have Supreme Authority, would be for the other branches of government to DEFY the Court. For example: by continuing the executions.
But they WON'T DO IT.
Why?
Because, in fact, the other branches of government are inferior in power to the Judiciary, and everyone tacitly acknowledges this by OBEYING the Judiciary 100% of the time.
If someone says he's your boss, and you do everything he says for 160 years, no matter how much you complain, and never, ever defy him to his face, he is your boss no matter what some old piece of paper says.
The only way to establish he is NOT your boss is to directly defy his order to his face and tell him to shut up.
The President and Congress and States won't do that the Supreme Court, because the truth is that the Supreme Court is the Supreme Authority in America.
That is reality, and there is no indication that it is going to change.
Nobody DARES challenge the authority of the Court, because the People, and the other branches of government, will PROSECUTE them if they do it.
Which merely proves, once again, that the Supreme Court is in fact the final Commander-in-Chief of America.