Human Rights

WASHINGTON - A few minutes into the oral argument over the juvenile death penalty last week at the US Supreme Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy posed a question. He wondered whether significant international opposition to juvenile executions should influence how an American justice interprets the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

"Does that have a bearing on what is unusual?" Justice Kennedy asked.

The query was aimed at a government lawyer, but it could have just as well been directed to the court itself.

How the court approaches Kennedy's question is important for two reasons. First, it highlights an emerging trend on the nation's highest court in which a majority of justices are increasingly willing to cite international law and foreign judgments to support their decisions. Second, with substantial opposition to capital punishment in Europe and elsewhere, it could play a key role in determining the outcome of the juvenile death-penalty case.