WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, ending a practice used in 19 states.

The 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of about 70 juvenile murderers and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes.

The executions, the court said, violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

I've actually been sort of happy with the Supreme Court lately. Even though this was a close decision, it shows that the majority of the justices are doing the right thing.

Justice Antonin Scalia, in dissent, said that the further the Court ruled on capital punishment (such as the 1988 outlaw of the execution of those under 15 and the ban on executing the mentally retarded that came just three years ago) the sooner they would be asked to rule on the acceptability of the death penalty itself. He goes on to say that the Court cannot be the sole arbiter of morals.

What strikes me as the most interesting thing is that these same nine Justices made a very different ruling in 1988. It shows that as these Justices are aging or progressing in their thoughts, the pendulum is beginning to swing from a very pro-death penalty Court to one that will outlaw the execution of minors and the mentally retarded.

Maybe we will be lucky and get the death penalty itself overturned one of these days.