Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/11pdf/10-9646.pdf
Page Number: 56

Cite as:  567 U. S. ____ (2012) 

1 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

Nos. 10–9646 and 10–9647 
_________________ 

10–9646 

EVAN MILLER, PETITIONER 
v. 
ALABAMA 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CRIMINAL
 
APPEALS OF ALABAMA
 

10–9647 

KUNTRELL JACKSON, PETITIONER 
v. 
RAY HOBBS, DIRECTOR, ARKANSAS 
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT
 
OF ARKANSAS
 

[June 25, 2012]

 JUSTICE  ALITO,  with  whom  JUSTICE  SCALIA  joins,

dissenting. 

The Court now holds that Congress and the legislatures
of  the  50  States  are  prohibited  by  the  Constitution  from 
identifying any category of murderers under the age of 18 
who  must  be  sentenced  to  life  imprisonment  without 
parole.  Even  a  17½-year-old  who  sets  off  a  bomb  in  a 
crowded  mall  or  guns  down  a  dozen  students  and  teach- 
ers  is  a  “child”  and  must  be  given  a  chance  to  persuade 
a  judge  to  permit  his  release  into  society.    Nothing  in 
the  Constitution  supports  this  arrogation  of  legislative 
authority.

The  Court  long  ago  abandoned  the  original  meaning  of 
the  Eighth  Amendment,  holding  instead  that  the  prohi- 
bition  of  “cruel  and  unusual  punishment”  embodies  the
“evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a
maturing society.”  Trop v. Dulles, 356 U. S. 86, 101 (1958)