Today, the supreme court issued two decisions which must fairly be described as not so supreme. In the first case, the court held that juveniles may not be sentenced to life without chance of parole for crimes other than murder. In the second case, the court held constitutional the law allowing "sexually dangerous" sex offenders to be kept in prison after the end of their prison terms. So, to simplify, a state cannot put a minor in jail for life without parole if he rapes someone, but the federal government can keep him there for life if it believes him to be sexually dangerous.
The decision regarding keeping sexually dangerous inmates incarcerated is perhaps the more troubling of the two. If Congress can do that, can it also decide that criminals who have not manifested sufficient recovery from their criminal rendencies may also be kept in jail? If the answer to that question is yes, where does the power end? the court's decision undercuts our whole criminal justice system in my opinion.
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