Supreme Court: 17 cases remain undecided
Highlights of some high-profile Supreme Court cases, among the 17 that remain to be decided before the court begins its summer recess, probably in late June:
--Gun rights, and the fate of a handgun ban in Washington, D.C. The court is undertaking the first comprehensive review of Second Amendment rights in U.S. history, and it will decide whether individuals have a right to own guns or whether that right is linked to service in a militia.
--Death penalty for raping a child. A man on death row for raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter is challenging a Louisiana law allowing the death penalty for the crime, even when it does not include the death of the victim. The last execution for a crime that did not also include murder was more than 40 years ago and the court outlawed the death penalty for raping an adult woman in 1977.
--Punitive damages in the Exxon Valdez oil spill. 
