After today’s Supreme Court decision, the following countries are now the only ones in the world that execute minors:

United States
Congo
Iran
China
Pakistan

Before today’s ruling the following states allowed minors to be executed: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Texas and Virginia. (Number of Red States – 16 Number of Blue States – 3)

Hat tip: Publius. 

And as one of Publius’ commentators correctly observes, this case should serve as a reminder to those morons who think the Constitution should be interpreted from an "originalist" standpoint. 

The genius of our founding fathers was that they did not claim genius.  They knew they were not Moses coming from the mountain.  Instead, they created a Constitution — a mere blueprint — which not only created the three branches of government, but assigned each of them specific duties. 

The Judiciary Branch (i.e., the federal courts) were given the task to interpret the Constitution.  This is what wingers and originalists complain about.  "Judicial fiat", "legislating from the bench", etc., are all fancy ways of complaining about the fact that judges are doing what the Constitution instructs them to do — INTERPRET THE CONSTITUTION.

Today, the Court interpreted "cruel and unusual", an admittedly and intentionally ambiguous phrase written by our forefathers.  The Court didn’t "make it up"; they didn’t "create laws from the bench" . . . they simply did their job.  The system works.

And the government can’t kill 17 years olds (and younger).