Any legislation to alter the size of the Supreme Court should include a provision that it will not take effect until after the next presidential election.
Supreme Court declines to put new limits on juvenile life-without-parole sentences By Melissa Quinn How likely are reforms to the Supreme Court?
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.
Supreme Court turns away disputes over firearms ban for nonviolent felons By Melissa Quinn Biden urges Congress to act on gun control
Washington The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a batch of legal battles involving the federal lifetime ban on firearms for people convicted of certain nonviolent crimes, sidestepping a contentious issue involving the Second Amendment.
The justices rejected appeals from three people who are barred from possessing firearms under federal law because of nonviolent misdemeanor and felony convictions. In declining to take up the cases, lower court decisions that found their Second Amendment rights were not violated by the ban remain in place.
Pelosi has no plans to bring bill expanding Supreme Court to House floor By Melissa Quinn How likely are reforms to the Supreme Court?
Washington House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she does not intend to bring a Democratic-backed bill that would add four seats to the Supreme Court to the House floor, stalling the measure just as lawmakers were poised to formally unveil it. I don t know that that s a good idea or a bad idea. I think that s an idea that should be considered, and I think the president is taking the right approach to study such a thing, Pelosi told reporters of the bill to expand the nation s highest court. It s a big step.