SCOTUSBlog:

The Justice Department, in a bold legal maneuver, on Monday afternoon asked the Supreme Court to rehear a major case on the death penalty, saying the basis of the decision had been “undermined.”
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The motion is based primarily upon the fact that the Court, in striking down Louisiana’s law on the death sentence for child rape, did not take account of a federal law authorizing that penalty in the military justice system.
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The new motion contended: “The Court’s decision and, in particular, its assessment of the ‘national consensus with respect to the death penalty for child rapists’, was not informed by those recent pronouncements [of Congress and the President].”

This is indeed a rather bold move by the Justice Deparment for reasons that are noted at SCOTUSblog.

Although I now oppose the death penalty in most cases, I do not believe that the Supreme Court should have much say so in the matter, and I was particularly unimpressed by the Court's opinion in the above-referenced child rape case, partially due to the error raised today by the Justice Deparment.