Supreme Court Doesn’t Act on Request to Rehear Rape-Death Penalty Decision

There’s no indication today whether the U.S. Supreme Court will rehear a decision that overlooked a military law.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued several orders today but didn’t act today on a request to rehear its decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana barring the death penalty for child rape, SCOTUSblog reports.

The state of Louisiana had sought a rehearing because of a missed fact in the opinion: The military has a law authorizing the death penalty for child rape. The majority decision by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy found a national consensus against capital punishment for the crime, based in part on the few states that have laws authorizing it.