Editor’s Note: Our Supreme Court Watch arti­cles have thus far been writ­ten by the staff of Log­a­rchism. Today’s arti­cle, though, is a con­tri­bu­tion from Max aka Bird­pi­lot. As always, we wel­come your contributions.

Evan Miller

Kun­trell Jackson

Today, the Supreme Court hears argu­ments in the cases of Miller v. Alabama and Jack­son v. Hobbs. The cases hinge on the basis of whether juve­niles con­victed of heinous crimes can be sen­tenced to life with­out parole. The Court has pre­vi­ously held in Gra­ham v. Florida that juve­niles can­not be sen­tenced to life with­out parole in cases involv­ing non–homi­cide crimes. It has also pre­vi­ously held, in Roper v. Sim­mons that those com­mit­ting cap­i­tal offenses while under the age of 18 can­not be sen­tenced to death for those crimes. Both cases were decided on a 5–4 vote, with Jus­tice Kennedy being the decid­ing fac­tor. The deci­sion of the Court in the Miller and Jack­son cases should come by the end of the term in June. (more…)