Supreme Court declines to put new limits on juvenile life-without-parole sentences
CBSN
Washington — The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would not place new restrictions on sentences of life without the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders, siding with the state of Mississippi in the case of an inmate convicted of murder when he was a teenager.
The high court ruled 6-3 along ideological lines to uphold the life-without-parole sentence of Brett Jones, who was convicted of killing his grandfather when he was 15. The divided Supreme Court said its rulings in a pair of earlier cases involving juvenile sentencing do not require sentencing judges to determine whether a juvenile offender is permanently incorrigible, or incapable of rehabilitation, before ordering them to spend the rest of their lives behind bars. Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivered the opinion on behalf of the court's conservative justices, writing "Jones's argument that the sentencer must make a finding of permanent incorrigibility is inconsistent with the court's precedents" in Miller v. Alabama from 2012 and Montgomery v. Louisiana from 2016.Billions of cicadas are emerging across about 16 states in the Southeast and Midwest. Periodical cicadas used to reliably emerge every 13 or 17 years, depending on their brood. But in a warming world where spring conditions arrive sooner, climate change is messing with the bugs' internal alarm clocks.
Senate Democrats to unveil package to protect IVF as party makes reproductive rights push this month
Washington — A group of Senate Democrats is set to unveil a new package to protect access to IVF on Monday, as the party makes a push around reproductive rights this month — two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.